Changing for the better ?
by 15x6x4-ever
Summary: Seeing how life at the order is affecting Lavi ,Bookman decides it is time for change. But how will Lavi cope when he has to bunk with his former enemy ? LUCKY!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N : Ok so this is my attempt at a LUCKY story, i just love the pairing so much and when the plot bunny attacked i couldn't resist. I don't think anyones tried this before, but if they have just tell me and I'll check it out.  
>Feel free to leave any comments, critisism (constructive preferably) etc. I'd love to hear what you think about it and wheter I should continue with this or not. :) xXx~64<br>Disclaimer : I don't own anything, the characters etc. are all Katsura Hoshino's all the credit goes to her ('cept for the plot that ones mine :)  
>Warning : YAOIShounen-ai, malexmale, boy's love, two guys, I don't think it gets a lot clearer than that ;) don't like don't read.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 : The beginning<strong>

Somewhere in the black order headquarters an old man was staring out the window, his eyes unseeing. He was completely lost in his thoughts, mind going over the coming conversation with his apprentice over and over again.

Until he was shocked out of his thoughts by someone knocking on his door. Knowing who it was, having sent for the them himself, he called out to the boy on the other side of the door.

"Lavi come in"

The door opened up and a redheaded boy of about 18 years old, wearing an eye patch over his right eye and the exorcist uniform walked into the room.

"Hey Jiji what's up ?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his pupils behavior the old man told him to sit,

"sit down Lavi I need to talk to you."

"Whoa what's with the face? Is something wrong ?" the apprentice asked worriedly, seeing the serious look of the man in front of him. Not that there really was anything a normal person could've used to determine this, but Lavi wasn't a bookman apprentice for nothing.

"There is, I've been observing you and noticed that lately you seem to be getting more and more attached to the other exorcists. Here the old man paused for a moment. "This is unacceptable, Therefore I've decided that you need to leave."

This statement was followed by a short pause in which his apprentices face slowly started to grow paler and paler before he finally managed to croak out,  
>"leave...what do you mean I need to leave ? "<p>

"I mean that you need to leave the black order. " Bookman answered his clearly distressed apprentice.

"Lavi, He continued, you are first and foremost a bookman, and as a bookman you can not have any attachments, They will only impair your judgment and ability to record history objectively. "

Finally seeming to get over his shock a bit Lavi started sputtering objections.

"Y-You you can't be serious ! you can't just make me leave like this, the war's not even over yet! Where would I even go ?"

"I have already made arrangements for that," The man calmly answered, "since you can't seem to remain unattached on this side of the war you will simply have to go to the other and record history from there."

"The..other.. side ? you mean the earl's side, You- you've got to be kidding me! Did you hit your head or something ? The guy's a monster! How could you even think of asking me to join him?"

The young man was now clearly upset and about to really lose his temper, Seeing this the older man quickly intervened.

"Lavi! calm down! you won't need to join anything, you'll only be there to observe, like you are supposed to do. "

Here he leveled a serious stare at the fuming boy in front of him, When the redhead had finally calmed down a bit he continued,

"You are getting much too worked up about this, as a bookman it is your duty to learn as much as possible and record it for future generations. This is an amazing opportunity to learn more about akuma, the Noah and even the millennium earl himself. You can not refuse. "  
>The last was said with such finality that Lavi knew it would be no use complaining any further, the panda had made up his mind and there was nothing he could do about it.<p>

Feeling a bit ashamed about his earlier outburst, but still not happy about the new arrangements, Lavi finally agreed. "Fine, but I don't have to like it."

"I never said you had to, idiot." Bookman said, reverting to his usual way of addressing the redhead now that the more serious part of the conversation was over.

"Can I at least say goodbye to my fri- I mean to the others ?" The redhead quickly corrected himself not wanting to upset the old panda again now that he finally seemed to be relaxing a bit.

"You may, but you'll have to be quick about it. The earl is sending someone to come pick you up at a nearby village tomorrow at noon. I will accompany you on the way there. We leave at dawn, I expect you to be ready then.

Lavi nodded and turned to leave, but before he could exit he heard the panda call after him,

"Oh and Lavi I know I probably don't need to tell you this, but don't tell them where you're going. It would only cause unnecessary complications."

"yes Jiji," he said, before once more turning and leaving the room.

If he had looked back though he would have seen the softening eyes of his teacher and heard the quiet sigh of regret that escaped the old man's lips.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N ; Hey everyone thanks for reading this ^^ I'd like to thank everyone who faved, alerted and reviewed, and I hope this'll live up to your expectations :)  
>Just a quick note about the TIMELINE, before people get confused : this story happens right after the edo and asian branch arc's but lenalee is not kidnapped yet. So she's still at the order with all the others. Thought that might be nice to know.<br>also im not sure if you get an alert for it but i noticed that i'd missed quite a lot of dots nd stuff in the other chappie so if you got an alert for chapter 1, that's what it was me putting dot's where i forgot em :P  
>oh well i think that was everything...on with the chappie then, enjoy! :)<br>Disclaimer : I don't own -man, It's all mis. Hoshino's.

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><p><strong>Somewhere in the Noah household :<strong>

"Tykiiiiiiiii play with me !" a young girl with spiky blue hair and wearing a schoolgirl outfit was poking a good looking man with wavy hair, sporting an expensive looking dress shirt and black pants.  
>These weren't their most defining features though, no, what really got people's attention about them was their dark gray tinted skin, golden catlike eyes and the row of crosses both had on their foreheads. These where two members of the Noah clan. And obviously one of them was bored.<p>

"C'mon Tyki, stop reading and play with me!" This statement was followed by another harsh poke to the man's arm.

Exasperated Tyki looked up from his reading, why did she always have to bug him? There were enough others in the house weren't there ? "Go away Road." Hoping he could now continue his reading in peace the Noah of pleasure looked back down at his book. Of course with Road nothing was ever so easy,

"But I'm bored ! Tykiiiiiiiii."

Feeling a headache coming on from his niece's incessant whining Tyki rubbed his temples with a sigh, "Road go find someone else to play with, I'm sure Lero wouldn't mind."

"Lero's not here, the twins kidnapped him, the girl said with a pout, and I don't want to play with the others, I want to play with Tyki! Having said so she continued her poking of the poor man's arm.

"And I'd like to read in peace, but as you can see, we don't always get what we want."

Getting fed up with the man's continued refusal Road started poking him harder and harder.  
>" Play with me! Play with me! Play. With. Me!"<p>

Tyki was about to grab his niece's arms and literally throw her out of his room, so he could finally get back to his reading, when the door opened.

In came a…chubby looking man wearing a yellow jacket, black pants and with an enormous hat decorated with blue flowers on his head. He had long pointy ears and wore glasses to cover his golden eyes. Creepiest about him though was the wide smile that stretched his entire face.

"Am I interrupting something ?" The man asked still smiling rather creepily.

"Millennie !" Once she saw who had entered the room the Noah of dreams immediately forgot about all about Tyki, jumped up and hugged the large man. Finally someone who would play with her!

"Road-chan." The Millennium earl said, smile widening just the tiniest bit at seeing his favorite little Noah.

"Lord Millennium, I apologize did we disturb you ?" Tyki, always the polite one, asked

"No, no not at all Tyki-pon. I came here because I have a job for you, you to Road-chan."

Hearing the hated nickname Tyki's smile faltered just a bit, before he managed to control himself once again and asked ,"a job ? what do we need to do ?"

"I'm glad you asked Tyki-pon, tomorrow I want you two to go pick up our newest family member."

"Oh ?" rising one elegantly curved eyebrow the Noah of pleasure was clearly surprised by this statement. ' a new member, but we already have everyone don't we? Counting the twins we even have one extra. I wonder what he's talking about.' He thought.

Apparently he wasn't the only one to think this, because before he could ask the earl himself, Road already did it for him,

"Eh a new family member ? but there's only supposed to be 12 of us, how can there be another one Millenie ?"

Smiling down at the confused looking girl the earl answered the question looking quite smug for some reason, "he's not a Noah Road-chan, your newest sibling is a bookman."

Hearing this Tyki's other eyebrow rose to join it's sibling on his forehead. 'So that's why he looked so smug, a bookman, my my this could get quite interesting.'

Still looking quite confused the oldest of the Noah blurted out, "a what ?"

This time Tyki answered for her, "a bookman, Road , is someone who records history, true history not the subjective nonsense most historians record nowadays. There can only be one at a time and they only ever take one apprentice. They're quite the exclusive little club."

"Oh those people, I remember them, they're no fun though," she pouted, "they're way to old."

Ignoring his niece's complaining Tyki turned back to the earl.  
>"But that truly is interesting , if I may ask, how did you manage to convince him ? Aren't they supposed to remain impartial?"<p>

Smiling in a way that could almost be considered mischievous, but actually only served to make the earl look even scarier than he normally did, he answered. "They are, but let's just say this one's a special case. You'll see when you meet him."

"Really now ?" The Noah of Pleasure's lips slowly curled into a cruel looking smirk. "This should be fun then, I look forward to it."

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><p><strong>In the abandoned village of Ashio Dozan<strong>

"A ghost town, they seriously picked a creepy abandoned town for a meeting place? You've got to be kidding me!"

Lavi and bookman had just arrived at the town of Ashio Dozan, where they were to meet the earls men, only to find it completely abandoned. Something which came as quite the surprise, for Lavi that is.

"Do I look like I'm kidding you idiot apprentice ?" The older man asked, already fed up by all the complaining Lavi had been doing for the entire trip there. All. four. hours. He understood how the brat was trying to keep his mind occupied, but did he really need to do so by whining about every little thing ? "What else did you expect, a five star restaurant ? "

"Well, no, but still they could've picked somewhere that's at least a bit nicer right ?" He asked in return looking around at the abandoned buildings, empty street and, was that a dust bunny ?

"Well they didn't so quit whining." Bookman grumpily said. 'What had he ever done to deserve this ?'

"I'll damn well whine if I want to jiji! He shouted looking angrily at the older man. Bookman, however, was having none of this and one well placed smack later Lavi was on the floor. Seeing that they had reached the town center bookman decided this was as good a place as any and sat down next to his still whimpering apprentice.

Having recovered a bit the redhead groaned "OI, what the hell jiji! What was that for ? "

Looking over at his apprentice he simply told him "I felt like it. "

Lavi groaned once more and decided to give up, there was no winning once the old panda got like this. Looking up he noticed the position of the sun. Having learned how to tell the time from just this, quite a handy little skill actually, he decided to announce his observations to his companion.

"They're late."

Looking up at the sky as well the old man had to agree. "They are."

"If they don't show up soon I'm going back." The redhead said outwardly calm, but on the inside he was desperately hoping the earl forgot about him. 'Maybe if they don't come Bookman will let me return with him' he thought. 'If only they would forget about me!'

Bookman though, having known the redhead for quite some time now, knew what was going through his apprentice's mind and ,though feeling maybe the slightest bit reluctant, was quick to put an end to the boy's traitorous thoughts.

"Whether they show up or not, you still won't go back to the order with me. You already said your goodbyes didn't you? Whatever happens now, your life at the order is over."

"I…I know gramps, I'm sorry" Lavi said before turning his head so the old man wouldn't see the sorrowful expression that he couldn't find the power to hide.

Knowing his apprentices reasons and feeling just the slightest bit guilty the old man didn't comment and resumed looking at the sky.

Lavi on the other hand let his mind wander back to his last moments with the order…

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><p>When he had woken up that morning he had almost believed that what had happened last night had just been a bad dream. He was quickly snapped out of this state though when he saw the empty state of his room and the packed suitcase standing at the foot of his bed.<p>

Wishing he could go back to sleep and just pretend reality didn't exist for a little longer, but knowing that he would only be delaying the inevitable, Lavi got up and put on some clothes.

Not his normal exorcist uniform though, no Lavi couldn't bring himself to put that on, knowing that later that day he would have to give up being an exorcist forever. Instead he put on a plain black t-shirt and some jeans he found somewhere in the back of his closet, it had been a while since he had dressed like this after all.

Looking in the mirror he winced at the look of his face. His whole face was an unhealthy pale color and there was a slightly darker than normal circle surrounding his one visible eye. 'I really do look like panda jr. now' he thought to himself bitterly. 'fitting since that's all that I'll be from now on, just panda jr. nothing more, nothing less.' He sighed and tried to smile his usual bright smile only to wince once again at the weak grin that appeared on his face. He tried again only to get the same result over and over again. 'this'll have to do then I guess' he eventually thought when it became obvious there was not going to be any improvement and he walked to the lunch hall knowing that he was most likely to find the others, and especially Allen, there.

Walking into the hall he quickly located his friends. To his relief they were all there, this would be hard enough to do once, never mind multiple times. 'Well then let's get this over with' he thought to himself as he made his way over to the table.

"Lavi! Good morning." a Chinese girl with short hair called out to him with a smile.

"Good morning guys." He answered, attempting another smile, apparently it came out right because no one commented on it. Though that may have just been because they were all much too focused on watching their youngest member murder his breakfast.

When Allen finally finished he wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked around the mountains of plates and bowls in front of him. "morning Lavi, finally decided to grace us with your presence did you ?" a teasing light had entered the white haired exorcist's eyes.

"Ah, yeah…" the redhead trailed off not knowing what to say.

"Lavi? Is something wrong?" Lenalee worriedly asked him, normally you're never this quiet."

"Che I wish." Kanda scoffed.

"Kanda! Be nice."Lenalee scolded, turning her attention back to the nervous redhead she continued, "seriously though Lavi is something wrong? "

"Ah well… Taking a deep breath he thought to himself, 'It's now or never' and he started to explain,  
>"I'm leaving, There's a war starting in England and bookman wants' me to go there and record it for him, I, I don't know when I'll be back… 'If I will ever be back' he finished his sentence to himself.<p>

a shocked silence descended nobody really knew what to say to that. How long it had been quiet for no one really knew but Kanda finally decided to break the silence.

"Finally, some peace and quiet , I've been waiting forever for this." No matter how harsh the words sounded Lavi saw the brief flicker of pain flashing through his friends eyes and briefly felt a warm sensation coursing through him, knowing the Japanese man cared. Thus he decided he'd show the swordsman his appreciation, in typical Lavi style of course.  
>How he got across the table and near the swordsman so fast no one will ever know, but what they all did know was that Kanda was getting the biggest hug of his life.<p>

"Yuu-chan, I didn't know you cared ! I'll miss you to !" like the hug was not bad enough already he just had to go and use that name, Kanda was livid.

"Let me go now you stupid Cyclops! and your death will be a fast one." Lavi however refused to listen to Kanda's demands and only squeezed him tighter. "if I'm going to die anyway I might as well enjoy it." He said happily.

"Usagi if you don't let me go right now I'll cut of your arms." The Japanese man threatened trying but failing to worm himself out of the deathtrap the redhead called his arms.

"Nope." Lavi said smiling brightly, a true smile on his lips now. Looking over at the others his smile grew even wider, "who wants' to give Yuu-chan a hug? He asked a mischievous spark in his one visible eye.  
>Ignoring the panicked look that entered the swordsman's eyes, the other two looked at each other before nodding, Allen and Lenalee smiled creepily, "We do !" they yelled, before happily joining in the hug.<p>

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><p>'This is nice', he remembered thinking, 'being like this, with friends. It really is...nice'<p>

Because reluctant as he may be to actually call them that. That's what they had been, his friends, and now they would never be his friends anymore.

So caught up in his musings was Lavi that he didn't even notice the odd heart shaped door appearing to his right.


	3. Chapter 3

a/n : hey everyone first thanks for all the alerts reviews favs etc. I'm glad you all like it ^^  
>and here it finally is the chappie you've all been waiting for tatatataaa the meeting :) I hope you all like it though I had a bit of trouble with getting it on paper right nd I still think it sounds a bit awkward sometimes but it'll have to do, next chapter the real fun starts ;)<br>oh and to Kuroi yoshi : thanks for reviewing I couldn't answer your review so I'll just say thank you here xd  
>now on with the story ! R&amp;R<br>Disclaimer : I don't own -man

Chapter 3 : The meeting

**In Noah's Ark**

Tyki and Road were on their way to go pick up the exorcist. Both were in their human forms so as not to attract to much attention in case there were other humans visiting the abandoned town the earl had given them as a meeting place. It wouldn't do to scare the poor thing after all.  
>Road was happily skipping ahead while Tyki followed behind at a more relaxed pace, It's not like the bookman would run away after all.<p>

Road, still skipping happily turned around, "Ne Tyki what do you think he'll be like ?" She asked.

"The bookman ? hmm I don't know, you probably won't really like him though," he answered, "Bookmen aren't exactly known for their social skills after all."

Slowing her pace so she was now next to Tyki she continued, "So you think he'll be boring then ?"

"I don't really care as long as he's quiet." Here he leveled a meaningful stare at the skipping girl beside him.

"Aww you're no fun at all." The girl said with a pout on her pale face, Seeing the door come into view however she cheered up again. Looking over at the tall man beside her she grinned, "Tyki I'm gonna go look what our new member looks like now , see ya! And she ran at the door laughing cheerfully while doing so.

Repressing the urge to roll his eyes at his niece's antics , The man sighed and followed after her, still keeping the same relaxed pace he had been walking at the entire time.

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><p><strong>In the town centre of Ashio Dozan<strong>

Lavi was still lying on the ground in the middle of Ashio Dozan's town square, completely lost in thoughts about his friends and time at the order. So caught up was he in his musings that he didn't even notice the odd heart shaped door appearing about a meter to his right. He did however notice when a spiky haired girl came running out of the door, it was hard not to notice someone after all when they tripped over your stuff and none to gently fell right on top of you.

Opening his one uncovered eye Lavi looked up dazedly trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him.  
>Finally blinking the many stars out of his vision he got a good look at the perpetrator only to see the body of a young girl, looking about 15 years old, with pale skin, spiky blue hair and wearing what looked like a school uniform draped across him. Immediately forgetting about his own discomfort the redhead reached out to gently shake the prone girl not wanting to hurt her anymore then she might already have been.<p>

Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered though, what a young and innocent looking girl like this would be doing in an abandoned village like the one they were in.

He was quickly helped out of his musings however when said girl sat up, and all his ideas of innocent and lost schoolgirls were immediately kicked out of his head.

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><p>"urgh..what happened." Road sat up slowly, feeling a bit dizzy. Blinking a couple of times the world around her finally came into focus . Looking around her she tried figuring out how she had ended up on the ground, one moment she had been skipping out of her door, the next she had been on the ground.<p>

There was nothing on either side of her except for her door which was still floating besides her and an old man who looked to be meditating on her other side. Deciding the old man couldn't have done anything from over there she finally looked down and suddenly everything made sense.

"YOU! You idiot what were you doing lying right in front of a door like that!"

The redheaded boy underneath her looked up at her, his one visible eye widening in shock.  
>"What do you mean in front of a door?" the idiot, in Road's opinion that is, had the nerve to ask,<p>

"There is no door around here."

"Of course there is! Look!" at this point she grabbed the poor boy's head and turned it so he could now see the heart shaped door about a meter to his right. "See ? she continued, "that door."

Gaping Lavi looked at the door that hung next to him in the air. Carefully he reached out a hand and to his surprise he found it solid to the touch. There really was a door hanging next to him!  
>'But…that wasn't here before,' he thought, 'I would have noticed something as odd as that.'<p>

Looking back up at the odd girl on top of him, he got another shock. Gone were the pale skin and dark eyes, dark grayish skin and golden colored orbs having taken their place, a line of crosses appearing on the girls forehead.

Slowly understanding started to dawn on Lavi, he had heard the stories about a Noah that looked just like a young girl with spiky hair from his friends and had read through the reports about their confrontations with the young Noah himself, a privilege being a bookman's apprentice got him. If he wasn't mistaken the Noah straddling him right now was none other than Road Kamelot .

Road however hadn't noticed the boy's attention drifting away from her and had happily continued ranting about sleeping in front of doors, particularly her own.

Bookman had long since noticed the commotion and was now watching the interaction with interest. He wouldn't interfere though, his apprentice could take care of himself and if things really got out of hand, well he had a couple of needles out just in case.

"So will you apologize now?" Road asked, seemingly running out of things to call the redhead underneath her.

"huh?" Lavi asked, finally noticing the girl's talking and realizing he had probably just missed something important. 'Not the smartest thing to do right now.' He thought to himself, 'If I want to get out of this in one piece it might be better to start paying attention right now.'

"I asked, will you apologize now." Road said looking quite pissed, "you did cause me to fall after all, I could have hurt myself!"

Seeing the girl's angry face his hand slowly started making its way to the holster on his thigh where his innocence was stored. If only he could grab his hammer he would at least feel a bit safer. For a little girl she could look quite scary.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, but it really wasn't my fault you know, you're the one who made a door right next to me." He said, a bit of annoyance creeping into his voice while he said the last part.

"What was that?" The girls screamed grabbing his shirt and lifting him up, "Are you blaming me now? You're the one who was laying in the middle of the square!" apparently she didn't take to well to criticism.

'Maybe I should've just left that last part out' the redhead thought to himself, chancing a look at the enraged female above him, 'yeah I'm screwed.'

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><p>Meanwhile Tyki finally reached the door Road had walked through about 5 minutes ago, he wasn't too worried though , even Road wouldn't be able to create any trouble in so little time.<br>Or at least that's what he thought. Cause walking through the door and taking a look around, he wasn't so sure about himself anymore.

There on the ground in front of him was Road, which wasn't really such a problem, the problem was that she was sitting on and yelling at what looked like a body.  
>Tyki sighed, leave it to Road to do the impossible. He really hoped that person wasn't their target , they were supposed to play nice after all and Road yelling and screaming at them really wouldn't work in their favor.<p>

He tried seeing what they looked like only to realize he couldn't since Road was blocking his view, but when his niece finally stopped screaming for a moment he could hear what sounded like a male voice coming from the body.

'Well at least she didn't kill them, that's something.' He thought, trying to remain optimistic.

Convinced the boy would be fine for now he resumed his scrutiny of the area. In the corner he noticed an older looking man sitting cross legged looking at his niece and her victim.

Not seeing anyone else Tyki made his way over to the two on the ground. He grabbed the back of Road's neck and pulled her off the poor boy, finally getting a good look at his niece's victim. He was young, about eighteen he'd guess, had fiery red hair that was held up with a green bandana and one of his green eyes was covered by an eye patch, the uncovered eye wide with a mixture of surprise, anxiety and what looked like quite a bit of irritation as well. 'Hmm he looks familiar .' Tyki thought, 'I feel like I've seen him before, but where?' but before he could remember he was interrupted by the indignant squawking of his niece.

"Tykiiii, put me down! C'mon how long are you gonna keep staring for? Tykiiiiii."

Snapped out of his reverie Tyki looked down at the girl in his hands and finally put her down. "Road, he began with an exasperated sigh, "Why were you attacking that boy over there? "

Straightening her skirt with a huff the girl replied "I didn't do anything! He made me trip!"

Looking back down at the still confused redhead on the ground Tyki asked, "Is this true?"

Lavi however wasn't really focused on the man's question as much as on the man himself. In front of him stood that same miner that had taken all Crow-chan's clothes in that poker game on the train! Sure he may have just a little more stubble on his chin than last time but it really was the same guy, what was he doing here ? and with a Noah of all people?

Hearing the man softly clear his throat Lavi snapped back to the present, stood up and answered the familiar looking man in front of him, "It isn't! I was just laying here and she suddenly comes out of nowhere, falls on top of me and starts yelling!

Hearing this Tyki sighed once again, "Road." he groaned, but before he could continue he was once more interrupted this time by the redhead in front of him. "uhm I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you?" he asked a sheepish smile spreading across his face.

"Ah my apologies", he said letting his appearance change into his black form," my name is Tyki Mikk, a pleasure." He finished with a smirk seeing the shock on the exorcist's face.

Slowly though the shock transformed into rage and with a jolt Tyki suddenly remembered where he had seen that look before, 'Oh boy this is not gonna be pretty,' he thought remembering the last time the, now remembered, exorcist had looked at him like that. 'I've got to stop him before this gets out of hand.' Too bad the only real way he knew of stopping someone involved quite a bit of pain for said someone, well there was one other way but he didn't really think the exorcist would appreciate that right now.

Luckily for him though Bookman had finally decided enough was enough and had restrained his apprentice before he could really screw up. It was bad enough he had already pissed of one Noah they didn't need the other one to get angry at them to.

"Lavi! Calm down! Remember why you're here!" The old man yelled at his apprentice.

"But he's the one who almost killed Allen!" the boy retaliated obviously not caring about reason at the moment and still struggling trying to reach his hammer so he could tear the still smirking Noah in front of him a new one.

"And why would you care?" Bookman asked, and that shut the boy up quick, Tyki noticed, seeing the stricken look on the boys face before he quickly hid it away again. 'Interesting'

"Yes master Bookman" the boy answered almost mechanically seemingly having lost all the fight in him.

"Good," the man answered, turning to the two Noah he continued, "I apologize for my apprentice's rude behavior, I am Bookman and this idiot here is Lavi," he said. "He will be joining you for the remainder of the war, though I trust you know this already." Seeing the Noah, or at least Tyki, nod, since Road was looking off to the side with a pout on her face trying her best to ignore everything going on around her, Bookman turned back to his apprentice,

"Well then since they're here, it seems I'm no longer needed. Try not cause too much trouble would you? He asked. and Before his apprentice could answer him he abruptly turned around and left, Bookmen didn't do sentimental goodbyes after all.

Stumped Tyki looked back at the apprentice bookman, expecting to see the boy look upset once more, only to see the boy smiling at the older man's back. Because what Tyki didn't know was that if the older man really hadn't cared, he would've just left without saying a word the moment the Noah showed up. Him staying and actually saying some form of goodbye showed the man cared and for that Lavi was grateful.

Feeling a lot calmer now for some reason Lavi turned back to look at the tall Noah in front of him.  
>Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage he looked straight up into those deep gold eyes and tried to force a smile, "Let's go then, shall we?" he asked and moved towards the door that was still hanging in mid air and without looking back even once crossed the threshold. The other two following behind as the door fell closed and disappeared, taking the two Noah and the bookmen's apprentice with it.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N : Okay here's the next chappie, sorry for the wait but I had a pretty busy week, birthday, school etc. so I didn't really have any time to write. Hope the chapter makes up for it though, I like it pretty much, It's got a lot of Tyki and who doesn't love him? xd  
>thanks for the reviews faves etc. and enjoy the chapter !<br>Disclaimer : I don't own -man, go sue someone else.

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><p>Lavi was laying on his new bed, wearing his new pajamas, in his new room. The bed was very comfortable, much more so then his old bed at the black order headquarters, but still he couldn't sleep. His mind was racing, going over everything that had happened earlier that day, searching for things he might have overlooked. Taking note of everything that may be of use to his new life at the Noah home and to him as a bookman in general. Eventually his busy mind wanders back to his goodbyes and a lone tear slips down his face before he manages to stop it. Quickly he decides to skip those memories, for now at least, only to resume his careful cataloguing from the moment he entered the ark.<p>

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><p>The first thing Lavi did when he stepped through the door was look around. He was standing on what looked like a typical brick road, if you ignored the gaping holes of varying sizes that littered the pavement, that is. Looking into one of those holes he saw what looked like a strange purple warping substance and quickly decided to stay far away from those. To the sides were several collapsed buildings their crumbling walls showing more of the swirling purple. All in all it wasn't the nicest place he'd ever been, Lavi decided.<br>Road, still looking quite angry, stomped off. Not knowing what else to do the redheaded was about to follow after her when he suddenly felt a body collide with him for the second time that day. Startled he lost his footing, but a gloved pair of hands shot out and steadied him before he could fall headfirst into one of the purple pits.

"Careful exorcist," a deep voice said, "you really don't want to fall into one of those, I assure you."

Turning around the redhead saw Tyki Mikk standing there, what looked like a smirk on his face.

Seeing he now had the bookman's attention Tyki continued,  
>"Road was right you know, it really isn't smart to stand in front of doors all the time, you never know when someone might decide to walk through it." Lavi was sure now, the brunette was definitely smirking at him!<p>

Feeling annoyed at the arrogant man in front of him and also a little ashamed by his clumsiness the redhead turned around and started walking after Road. This only served to make Tyki laugh though, the man's deep chuckles following after him while he did his best to ignore him. It turned out that that wouldn't be too difficult though since the man seemed perfectly content to let the fuming redhead be. Strolling along in a relaxed manner besides him. When after a couple of minutes they finally reached the exit Road was there waiting for them.  
>"Took you long enough." She said before opening the door and impatiently gesturing for them to go ahead. Lavi didn't hesitate for a second and stepped through the door without pause, only too happy to finally be able to get away from the dreary surroundings and still smirking man next to him.<p>

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><p>The first thing Lavi did after coming through the door was quickly getting away from it. He did not want a repeat of any of the earlier incidents standing near it had caused. As soon as he thought he was a safe distance away he looked around. He was standing in what looked like a living room, the walls were a pale yellow color and decorating them were paintings of gruesome scenes, torture scene's seeming to be the most common. In the middle of the room stood a low table and all around the room were couches and comfortable looking chairs. In a particularly large and colorful specimen sat the millennium earl.<p>

The earl was dressed like usual, wearing his yellow coat and with a large hat on top of his head. This time the hat seemed to be decorated with white and red flowers, the single red one contrasting greatly with the white like blood on snow.

Lavi could faintly hear the two Noah entering the room behind him and hearing the sound of someone stomping of and of a door closing it seemed Road had left the room, thankfully without running him over this time. He did not look away from the earl though. This was his enemy , the man he had worked so hard to defeat…and he was smiling.

"Ah you must be Lavi-chin! Welcome, welcome! I hope you had a nice trip?"  
>The redhead was still quite surprised by the warm welcome he seemed to be receiving and didn't realize he was supposed to answer until he looked back up to see the earl staring at him expectantly. Stumbling for something to say he opened and closed his mouth a few times before he finally managed a nod.<p>

"Wonderful, just wonderful." The earl said, apparently he hadn't noticed his pause, or if he did he wasn't letting it show. "Now I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'll just leave you to get settled. Don't worry though, I'm sure there'll be more than enough time to talk tonight. Having said this the earl turned to look at one of the people behind him.

"Tyki-pon, why don't you show Lavi-chin to his room hmm? I'm putting you in charge of him so take good care of your new brother, okay?" Even though it was formulated as a question, the look in the earls eyes as he said it was more than enough to convince Lavi it wasn't.

"Of course lord Millennium." He heard a voice he now recognized as the brunettes answer, "I'll make sure he's taken care of."

"Good," the earl nodded, "then I'm leaving, see you at dinner Tyki-pon, Lavi-chin." and with that he left, leaving a still stunned Lavi alone with Tyki.

Hearing the man's quiet chuckles Lavi turned to Tyki, "what?" He managed to ask.

"Oh nothing…Lavi-chin." The Noah of pleasure answered, a big grin on his face.

The redhead felt confused by his comment until he thought back to his conversation with the earl. He hadn't noticed it just then but when he thought about it, "Lavi-chin…wait didn't the earl just-"

"Yes lord Millennium just called you that," the brunette said with laughter in his voice, "you better get used to it, once he has a nickname he never lets it go." Here the man's expression soured a bit.

Thinking back to the conversation just now Lavi could easily see why, being called pon all the time sounded as much fun to him as chin did.

"Anyway I think it might be best if I took you to your room now, you must be tired and you'll definitely need all the rest you can get for tonight." The man said, turning and walking out the door as he did so.

"Yeah I'm pretty tired, what happens tonight ? the earl mentioned dinner." The redhead answered while following the brunette out the door and into a hallway.

"He did," the brunette said looking back at his charge seemingly not needing to look to know where he was going, "the earl was talking about a family dinner that is planned for tonight, we have those from time to time if something comes up that catches the earls interest. This one's to introduce you to the family."

Lavi looked a bit troubled at hearing this, "Hmm if they are anything like Road I can see what I might need the extra rest for."

"Good thing we're here then," The brunette said before stopping at a door in a small hallway that branched off of the main one.

"This," he continued, "is your room, the door on the left is the bathroom, across from that is a storeroom. If you need any extra blankets or towels or something like that you can find them there, there's supposed to be some of those in your room already though as well as clothes.  
>The door opposite yours leads to my room, if you have any questions you can always come and ask." He Looked over at the former-exorcist to see if he understood and saw him nod. "Well then I'll leave you to it."<p>

Suddenly the Noah blinked as if he had just had an idea and smirked. He leaned forward a bit so that his mouth was right next to the redhead's ear, "Have a pleasant stay…Bookman-kun." He murmured, before leaning back and after taking a quick look at the exorcist's stunned face walked away chuckling as he did so.

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><p>Hearing the door to the Noah's room close snapped Lavi out of his daze and, deciding to ignore what just happened, he decided he might as well check out his new room, it wasn't like there was anything else he could do anyway.<p>

Opening the door Lavi was surprised at the size of the room in front of, it was definitely bigger than his accommodations at the Black Order headquarters and a lot nicer to.

The room was well furnished, a big king-sized bed stood in the centre, with a two nightstands on either side of the bed, while a couch stood against the wall to his right, a nice looking fireplace with a pair of comfortable chairs occupied once corner of the room while the wardrobe was located in the other and when he opened it up he found it to be filled with different kinds of clothing.  
>Everything was done in different shades of blue and to his surprise Lavi found he like it. He had expected to be dumped in a cell as soon as he got here or something that at the least looked a lot like it, but it seems he was wrong.<p>

Lavi took another look at the incredibly soft looking mattress in front of him and quickly made up his mind. He kicked of his boots and took of the holster with his innocence, placing it on one of the nightstands next to the bed, and jumped on the bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

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><p>Lavi woke to the sound of someone calling his name and the feeling of someone shaking him.<p>

"Lavi. Lavi, wake up!"

'I know that voice.' the dazed redhead thought, 'but from where?'

"Lavi!" The voice was starting to sound a bit impatient now.

He opened his eyes, seeing a tall blurry form bent over him. Blinking a couple of times to get his eye to focus he recoiled in shock when he saw who exactly had been shaking him for the past five minutes, not that he knew that of course. He was about to attack the Noah in front of him but luckily for him his mind managed to catch up with him just before he was about to strike out at the man in front of him.

"Tyki?" he asked in a sleepy voice, rubbing his one uncovered eye with his hand in an attempt to clear his vision some more, "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" The man grunted, "I'm trying to wake you up so we won't be late for dinner, lord Millennium would be most displeased if we were." Here the Noah gave Lavi a meaningful look, "and believe me, that is not something you should want."

"Ah okay, I'm sorry." Lavi said uncomfortably, apologizing to his enemies was not something he was used to doing.

"It's fine," the older man sighed, "I've already picked out some clothes for you so if you just hurry up and get dressed we should make it in time."

"Okay," Lavi said, before turning and looking at the Noah expectantly,

"What?" The brunette asked, seeing the way the redhead was looking at him, "Something on my face?"

"I want to get dressed." Lavi said slowly, giving Tyki a meaningful look as he did so.

He saw a look of understanding dawn in the Noah's eyes. "Ah of course, my apologies, I'll be waiting outside then." Having said this the brunette finally left the room.

Lavi quickly slipped of the bed and walked to the clothes the brunette had laid at the foot of it. They were pretty simple just a dark green T-shirt and a pair of jeans with a belt with a holster attached to it for his hammer.

Lavi dressed as fast as he could and straightened his eye patch a bit, before looking in the mirror and trying to fix his hair, finally deciding this was as good as it would get. He walked out the room to find Tyki leaning against the wall across from him.

Seeing the exorcist was ready Tyki kicked off the wall and started walking away, Lavi following after him.

"Good, now that you're finally here there's some things you need to know if you want dinner to go as smoothly as possible." The Noah started turning his head to the redhead.

"The earl has told me only a couple of us will be attending since the rest still have other business they need to attend to. You're quite lucky you know that? Most of the time these dinners are mandatory."

"Anyway here's what you need to know, First don't mention anything about sweets or sweet things in general, it will save us all a headache. Second try to ignore the twins and don't piss them of please, they're annoying enough as it is. I'd tell you not to piss of Road but it's a bit too late for that. Just be polite to Lulubell and you shouldn't have any problems with her. I don't think I need to tell you to be polite to the earl do I?"

Seeing the redhead nod he continued, "Good well that's it I think, Tyki trailed of obviously trying to think of anything else that needed to be added, after a second his eyes lit up, "oh wait I almost forgot about Lero, hmm just ignore the umbrella, and that should do it." He finished.

"Any questions? No?" he asked seeing the redhead shake his head. "Good because we're here." Tyki said, pointing at a pair of large double doors in front of him.

Putting his hands on the doors he looked back at the exorcist with a smirk, "Good luck, Bookman" he said and then he pushed.


	5. Chapter 5

AN/ Hey everybody, welcome to the newest chappie of changing for the better? it's a bit shorter then normal but I'll hope you'll enjoy it anyways, we're meeting the family this chapter ^^ also thanks for the reviews, alerts etc. you all make my day.  
>Now then on with the chapter, oh and it starts directly where the last chapter ended, R &amp; R!<p>

Disclaimer : I don't own -man go sue someone else.

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><p><em>Last time : <em>

_"Any questions? No ? Good because we're here." Tyki said, pointing at a pair of large double doors in front of him._

_Putting his hands on the doors he looked back at the exorcist with a smirk, "Good luck, Bookman." he said and then he pushed._

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><p>Before Lavi could process what Tyki meant the Noah had already pushed the doors open wide. He gave the redhead a chance to take a quick look at the room in front of him before he gently put a hand on the small of his back and, with a soft push, started leading him to the long table at the end of the room, his hand remaining on the younger man's back the entire time.<p>

Lavi however was too busy looking at the surroundings to really notice. The room was …odd to say the least. What looked to be thousands of paintings decorated the walls, walls that were so high he couldn't even see the ceiling. There were no windows in the room and the only light source seemed to be the small chandeliers standing on top of the dining table, but while the room was quite dark there was too much light for that to be possible. The dining table itself was quite small compared to the rest of the Noah home , only having enough place for about ten people the redhead estimated. Surrounding the table were red high-backed chairs.

The thing or more precisely things that really caught his attention though, were not the chairs, but the Noah sitting in them. Grouped together at one end of the table were five Noah all easily recognizable by their dark grey skin tone and golden colored eyes, most of which were looking at the bookman and his escort curiously. Road as soon as she saw it was Lavi that had entered had resumed looking at her plate with a childish pout on her face, obviously still mad about earlier. Next to Road sat the only other woman at the table, she was quite beautiful but an icy expression was fixed on her face. Across from the childlike Noah a big bulky man was seated, and if Lavi was honest with himself he didn't exactly look like the smartest bloke around. Next to the bulky man sat two boys who were messing around with a couple of handguns, pointing them at each other's heads. One of them, a blonde Noah oddly enough, was giggling insanely while the dark haired boy next to him was laughing. Lavi assumed these were the twins Tyki mentioned.

When they reached the table the twins were the first to react, "Eh Tyki who's that ?" the dark haired twin started. "Yeah who's that?" his blonde haired brother giggled. "Who's that, who's that, who's that?" The blond kept giggling jumping up and poking at Lavi as he did so.

Lavi feeling a bit uncomfortable with the situation glanced at Tyki, the older man was standing next to him with a resigned look on his face, obviously used to this.

With a sigh Tyki began the introductions , "Lavi these two are Jasdero," he indicated the blond twin, "and Debitto," here he pointed at the still sitting twin, "JasDebi this is Lavi, he will be living with us for awhile."

Seeing Debitto starting to open his mouth he quickly cut him off, "and no I won't tell you why, you'll just have to wait for the earl to tell you."

Hearing this the twins started to protest, but Tyki, having a lot of experience in doing so, just ignored them.

Deciding he may as well finish what he had started Tyki continued the introductions.

He pointed at Skinn, "This here is Skinn Bolic." Hearing his name Skinn grunted, looking Lavi over once before muttering something to himself. It sounded suspiciously like "I wonder if he tastes sweet?" and Lavi decided immediately that he did not want to be alone with this guy.

Next Tyki indicated the beautiful woman on the other side of the table, "The woman over there is Lulubell." Looking up at the redhead Lulubell just nodded once before she resumed looking at the wall to their left. "and of course you already know Road." Tyki finished.

Lavi just nodded awkwardly and tried to smile, but from the feeling of it that hadn't worked out. Hearing the sound of a chair scraping over the floor he looked up, only to see Tyki had gotten seated in the open chair next to Lulubell. Seeing that the only other open chair was the one next to Jasdero, not counting the chair at the head of the table that was obviously meant for the earl, Lavi sighed before making his way over to the chair and sitting down.

He looked to his side, saw the still giggling blonde and immediately decided Tyki had been right, ignoring the twins seemed to be the best course of action here. Jasdebi though was not going to let him do that so easily.

"So you're an exorcist right? The dark haired twin, Debitto he reminded himself, asked him.

Deciding that he may as well try to be polite the redhead answered. "Yeah I am"

Leaning over the table Skinn joined in the conversation. "An exorcist ? They're not sweet, not sweet at all!" he said sounding angry.

Jasdero started cackling obviously finding something funny though Lavi couldn't fathom what. "Not sweet, not sweet" he kept repeating.

Meanwhile Skinn looked like he was about to blow up, Lavi could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. Feeling helpless and maybe just a little scared of the big Noah the redhead turned to the only person he thought might help him, only to see Tyki rolling his eyes at the scene, turning an almost pleading look to the ceiling.

Looking around for someone else who might help him he saw Road looking at him with a malicious little smirk, she was obviously enjoying this. Lulubell on the other hand just looked at the scene with indifference.

Hearing a thud next to him he looked down and saw the twins rolling over the floor laughing and waving their guns. He looked back up just in time to see the massive arm coming at him, grabbing him and hoisting him up in the air without any trouble. Lavi gulped and looked directly in the enraged eyes of Skinn, "Exorcists are not sweet, I hate exorcists! " The man bellowed and he drew his free arm back.

Preparing himself for the impact Lavi closed his eyes, only to open them again after a minute when the punch just wouldn't come. What he saw made his one uncovered eye widen. Tyki Mikk was standing in the middle of the table, not on the table no, In the table, and he was holding Skinn's drawn back arm in place.

And that was the scene the Millennium Earl walked in on.

The earl took one look at the scene in front of him and his usual smile widened even more. He clapped his hands together a couple of times to catch the attention of everybody in the room.

Lulubell was the first to notice him, Road and the twins quickly followed.

Tyki, Skinn and Lavi though were a bit preoccupied. Seeing this the earl coughed, loudly.

Skinn looked up when he heard the sudden noise, ready to snap at whoever dared to interrupt him, when he saw the smiling visage of his leader. Shocked he immediately dropped the exorcist he was holding.

Lavi prepared himself for a lovely meeting with the floor, only to be surprised yet again when two arms quickly reached out and caught him, pulling him against a firm chest before he could fall.  
>Looking up he saw it was Tyki who had once again saved him. Feeling embarrassed he quickly struggled free from the other man's hold and turned to the cause of this new commotion, at his side Tyki did the same.<p>

There stood the millennium earl smiling widely his purple umbrella in hand. Seeing he now finally had everybody's attention the earl spoke, "Good evening everyone. Sorry I'm late I had some unfinished business that needed taking care of. It's good to see everybody's been getting along in my absence though ."

'If the man thought this was getting along, Lavi thought looking around himself, then I really don't want to know what not getting along is like.'

"Now if you would all get seated we can start tonight's meeting." The earl continued happily, sitting down in the large chair at the head of the table himself. The others quickly following his example.

"As you by now all know I called this meeting to introduce you to our newest family member, Lavi-chin here is a bookman in training and former exorcist. He'll be living with us for the foreseeable future. I expect everyone to be nice to him and help him if he needs anything, understood?"

The glint in the earl's eye made it all too obvious that that was not a question and reluctantly, especially in Road's case, all the Noah nodded.

"Good!" The earl said seemingly not noticing or otherwise ignoring the obvious reluctance of his family. "Now that that has been dealt with let's start dinner shall we?" As he said this several akuma came out carrying plates of food and setting them in front of each Noah and Lavi.

After that everybody started dining in peace, barring one incident where the Earl's umbrella came alive and started berating Road for being rude to their guests.

Lavi himself only ate a bit but was quickly overcome by tiredness, it had been a long day for him after all and he could really use some sleep right now. He yawned and felt his eye starting to close only to blink and force himself back into consciousness. It wouldn't do to fall asleep in a room full of dangerous killers after all, nor would it be very fun to wake up covered in food.

Luckily for him though his tiredness had obviously been noticed and after talking with the earl for a bit Tyki and Lavi were excused from dinner.

Lavi didn't remember much from the walk through the hallways back to his room, he had been half asleep at the time after all. The one thing he did remember though was the sound of a deep voice murmuring a goodnight to him, just before he blacked out.

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><p>Not long after he had blacked out he had woken up again, because of some unfamiliar noise from somewhere in the house. Deciding to ignore it Lavi had tried to get back to sleep only to realize he couldn't. His overactive mind insisting he go over the day's events before allowing him to even think of sleeping. Now that he had finally finished he gladly fell in the embrace of slumber, the last thought on his mind that of a deep voice wishing him a goodnight.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

An/ Hey everybody and welcome to chappie 6, I hope y'all enjoy and review! For the road fans y're gonna like this one, i think xd  
>anyway thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed, faved, alerted etc.<br>special thank you to kuroi yoshi cuz I couldn't answer your review. (if i forgot to answer anybody else's review sorry)

Disclaimer : I don't own -Man

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><p>When Lavi woke up that morning he still felt a bit groggy, he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep yesterday night after all. As he lay on the comfortable bed in his new room he almost wished he could go back to sleep, but he knew such an effort would be futile. Once he was awake, he was awake and no comfy bed could do anything to change that.<p>

With a sigh the redhead cracked open his eye and got out of bed. Walking to the bathroom he paused when he saw himself in the floor to ceiling mirror on his wall. He had forgotten to take of his clothes before going to bed yesterday and the redhead sighed once more at seeing his rumpled appearance. Taking of his eye patch and hanging it on one of the knobs of the dresser he continued on to the bathroom. Once there he quickly took of his clothes and dumped them in the hamper he found there, before stepping into the shower.

Turning on the water Lavi tilted his head back, closed his eye and just relaxed. He had always found showering oddly comforting. It was so easy just to focus on the feel and the sound of the water and forget about anything else for a bit. Not that he could really forget of course, no he could never forget anything, his training and naturally eidetic memory wouldn't allow it. But in the shower, with the water drowning out the outside world, he could pretend, even if it was just for a bit, that he knew nothing at all.

To all good things though must come an end and soon even the calming feel of the water wasn't able to repress the redheads anxiety any longer. Knowing a lost cause when he saw one, or felt one in this case, he opened his one eye and with a quiet sigh of regret turned off the water. Stepping out of the shower he quickly located a big fluffy towel hanging from a rack on the wall and dried himself off. Wrapping the towel around his middle he walked back into the main room and headed over to the dresser grabbing his eye patch and securing it over his eye with well practiced motions. Opening up his wardrobe he grabbed a pair of jeans and a black shirt and quickly got dressed. He walked back in the bathroom brushed his teeth and after locating a brush on the sink he pulled it through his hair a couple of times till he was satisfied and put on his trademark green bandana.

Now finally finished with his morning routine the redhead looked a little lost, not sure what he should do now. Should he go and look for Tyki? The man had told him to go to him if he needed anything after all. Or was he supposed to wait for someone to come get him? Was he even allowed out of his room without an escort ? He had been one of their enemy's just yesterday.

Distracted as he was the redheaded exorcist didn't even notice the knocking on his chamber door.

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><p>Tyki Mikk raised his hand to knock on the door of his redheaded charge's room once more. When he had been waiting for about five minutes and still hadn't heard any reply whatsoever he figured the redhead was probably still asleep and that he should go and wake him up before they missed breakfast.<p>

He didn't really mind though, if yesterday was any indication Lavi looked surprisingly cute when asleep. Not that he felt anything for the redhead of course, but he didn't see anything wrong with simply enjoying the view and the redhead really was quite handsome to look at. Not his usual type sure, but cute in his own right.

Having made up his mind the Noah silently opened the door and looked in, expecting to see a sleeping exorcist, only to be surprised when all that met his eyes was an empty but obviously slept in bed. Looking around he saw the door to the bathroom was slightly open and walked over to it only to pause right outside, he didn't want to aggravate their redheaded guest after all.

"Lavi?" He called, "Lavi are you there?"

-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-linebreak-

Lavi was startled out of his musings when he heard someone calling his name from the other side of the door. Opening it he found Tyki standing there his hand poised to knock. 'Well that answers that question,' he thought.

"Ah there you are." The Noah said with a smile not looking surprised at all. "I trust you slept well ?"

Not knowing what else to do the redhead just nodded.

"That's good. The Noah said absentmindedly.

"Well then you must be hungry, so why don't we go down to the kitchens for something to eat? We might actually still be on time for breakfast." The last was said with a teasing smirk obviously referring to how they were almost late for dinner last night.

Lavi was about to answer the still smirking brunette when his stomach did it for him. Horrified he grabbed his stomach silently cursing the damn thing for embarrassing him. Slowly he chanced a glance upward at his brunette guide only to wince at the mirth he saw in the older man's eyes.

"I'll take that as a yes." Tyki told the flustered bookman barely contained laughter sounding in his voice. Seeing the ginger flush just a little more he turned on his heel, his goal accomplished, and started making his way to the kitchens.

Lavi seeing the older man was leaving him behind quickly followed after him. Looking around him he saw they were walking the opposite way they had walked yesterday and silently wondered who would put their kitchens that far away from their dining room? He didn´t feel like talking to the tall Noah next to him though so he decided to keep his curiosity to himself, he could always ask at a later date if he really wanted to know.

Soon the two arrived at the kitchens and, to Lavi´s surprise, Tyki immediately started rummaging through the various cupboards, grabbing eggs, bacon and a frying pan. He had assumed some akuma servant's would be doing the cooking but it seemed he was wrong.

"You don't mind do you?" Tyki asked the silently watching redhead, gesturing to the eggs and bacon.

"I don't know how to make much else and I really don't feel like bothering with the akuma right now."

Not really caring much the redhead answered, "No don't worry it's fine."

"Good then why don't you take a seat and I'll be right with you."

Nodding the ginger took a seat at the small wooden table near the corner and since he didn't have anything better to do started watching the older man cook.

Quickly though his mind started drifting back to memories of breakfast at the order and how different this was. For one there was no Allen here who would eat mountains of food that made you wonder where he put it. No Kanda barking at the finders to get out of his seat even though he sat at a different table every day. No Lenalee to keep the peace between the boy's when they'd start fighting about some meaningless little thing once again.

Soon the food was done though and Lavi was once again pulled out of his musings. The two men ate in peace, the only sounds being heard those of the cutlery clanking against their plate's as they quickly finished their breakfast.

When they were finally done Tyki quickly cleaned of the table before turning to the still silent exorcist.

"Lavi?" Seeing he had the gingers attention he continued, "I thought you might like to see a bit of the manor, is there anywhere in particular you'd like to go?"

At this the redhead perked up. "Do you have a library?"

Suppressing a smile at the bookman's sudden eagerness the Noah nodded. "As a matter of fact we do, quite a big one actually, shall I show you?"

Regaining control of himself a bit again the redhead nodded. His enthusiasm was still quite obvious to the Noah though, but who could blame him? He was a Bookman after all and the Earl was sure to have some very interesting and rare books.

"Very well then, let's go."

And Lavi followed Tyki once more through the winding hallways of the Noah mansion. On the way there the Noah pointed out some things such as the rooms of all the Noah he had met yesterday, JasDebi shared a room not that he was surprised at that, a living room, some other smaller dining rooms, the door to the Earls chambers and several other important places, before at long last they finally arrived at the library,

"and this here, is the library." Tyki said opening the big double doors with a flourish of his hand.

Lavi looked through the doorway into the room beyond and all he could do was gape at the sight that met him. In front of him had to be the largest library he had ever seen. The walls were covered floor to invisible ceiling with bookcases and the middle of the room sported even more of these. Even from where he stood now he could already make out the titles of some very rare books that he had always wanted to read but never got the chance to. It was basically bookman heaven.

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><p>Tyki chuckled at the star struck boy next to him. He really was quite a sight, his one visible eye had widened to immense proportions and his chin was doing a good job of reaching the floor and, if he didn't know any better, he would even say it might succeed.<p>

Deciding to have some fun he gave the dazed redhead a soft push and watched as with a surprised shout he stumbled into the room. He laughed as he saw the flustered and confused face of the boy as he straightened himself, looking around himself before his gaze settled on Tyki.

"You! You.. What did you do that for?" An indignant Lavi sputtered.

"You were blocking the door again," The Noah answered with an innocent look on his face, "I merely thought I'd help before someone runs into you again." The sparkle of barely restrained mirth in his eyes betrayed his words though. "Road likes the library to you know." He finished, a smirk on his lips now.

Lavi got even more flustered now that he was reminded of the happenings of the day before but decided to just ignore the annoying Noah in front of him. With a huff he turned around and walked over to one of the enormous bookcases selecting a couple of books before walking over to the next and doing the same. Within minutes he had his arms full of old tomes and started looking around for somewhere to sit. Spotting a door he walked over to it curious of what lay behind, only to almost drop the books he had precariously stacked in his arms when a hand shot out before him and opened the door for him.

Looking back he leveled a glare at the smirking Noah that had been following him around sure that the other had been hoping for him to drop the books and embarrass himself further. His glare only seemed to amuse the other man even further though. With an annoyed sound Lavi turned back to the now open door and was surprised when he saw that the room beyond was not filled with books as he had assumed, but was actually a comfortable looking sitting room with a couple of chairs, a small table and even a fireplace.

Feeling his arms start to strain under the weight of the books Lavi quickly walked over to the table and gently put them down. He grabbed one of them and sat down in one of the chairs facing the fire. Not paying any attention to his companion he started to read.

Tyki for his part grabbed a book from the table and started leafing through it. Not interested he put it back down again and grabbed another giving it the same treatment. Deciding this one seemed interesting enough he walked over to the chair next to the redhead and sat down.

As he sat down he chanced a glance at his redheaded companion and a small smile took over his face when he saw him absorbed in his reading.

It seemed like he would finally be allowed to read in peace for once.

* * *

><p>It had been a week since Lavi came to the Noah household. Not much had happened though and his days still went a lot like that first one. Sure he actually knew where he was going now when he and Tyki walked through the hallways but that was about it. The man was also still the same annoying Noah he had been that first day and it seemed to Lavi that he had made it his personal quest to annoy and tease the ginger in any way possible. When he wasn't trying to annoy him though, Lavi found that the man's company was at least bearable if not something close to good at times.<p>

The only thing that really changed was that Road was finally over her dislike of the one-eyed teen.

Three days after he first came there he and Tyki had walked in the library and Road had been sitting at a table near the front of the room that was covered in papers. When she had heard the sound of people entering she had looked up only to smile widely at seeing her favorite uncle. That smile had faltered a bit when she saw his redheaded companion though.

Still she seemed to get over it quickly enough. Because soon she was clinging around her uncle's waist."Tykiiiiiiiii."She said, "Help me!"

The man in question had just sighed and shaken his head before walking over to the cluttered table and taking a look at the papers on it. "Road." He had groaned, "Do I really have to?"

"Yeah!" The girl had yelled, "You have to help me or I'll tell Millenie!"

"Fine then what do you need done?" Tyki caved in with a groan.

While the girl was quickly pointing out papers to her uncle Lavi had sneakily walked over until he could look over her shoulder and see what all the fuss was about. To say that he was surprised would be an understatement. There on the table lay several sheets with exercises in math, geography, history and several other subjects were all present. The girl was having problems with her homework.

Absentmindedly the redhead had grabbed a sheet and a pen and started filling in the answers, greatly helped by his eidetic memory and bookman skills. He was starting on his fifth sheet when he could hear Road start to lecture her uncle about something that sounded suspiciously like always pulling the same trick and something about the number twelve.

Shrugging he was about to continue with the exercises when someone ripped the sheet from his hands. When he looked up he saw Road standing there with the now rumpled sheet in her hands, to say she didn't look happy would be an understatement.

"And you! What the hell do you think you are doing? That's my homework!"

"You asked for help right?"The redhead spat back also starting to grow quite pissed at the girl.

"I asked Tyki for help." Road answered, putting a heavy emphasis on Tyki's name. "Not you, you would only screw..it up anyways? The last part was said with disbelief because Road had finally looked at the paper in her hand and to her great surprise there were actual answers there! Not just a number or word over and over again but real non-repetitive answers!

"You…you actually answered these seriously?" The girl said looking at Lavi with big eyes.

Lavi who had started to feel a bit uncomfortable with the creepy look the girl was giving him nodded.

"Yeah, that's what I was supposed to do right? He said hesitatingly

He was almost afraid he had said the wrong thing because Road remained silent for a long time just looking at him with those creepy golden eyes of hers. But her silence didn't last forever and before he knew it he had his arms full with a happy Road.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the now exuberant girl kept hugging him and, not knowing what to do, Lavi looked over at Tyki only to see the man desperately trying to contain his laughter. His efforts were completely in vain though because as soon as he saw the exorcists helpless look he couldn't keep the laughter in any longer.

Lavi felt a bit lightheaded by the time Road finally released him, the girl really was stronger than she looked. He didn't get a lot of time to recuperate though, because as soon as he was released Road had grabbed his hand and had started dragging him to a chair at the still cluttered table. He had then spent the next couple of hours together with a still chuckling Tyki and happy Road doing the girl's homework.

Over the next couple of days Road would often join them during breakfast and in the library, especially when there was homework to be done.

'All in all,' Lavi thought to himself, 'living with the Noah isn't that bad. Sure I'd still rather be back at the black order but…it could be worse I guess.'

* * *

><p>"Lord millennium." Tyki said as he walked into the Earl's shadowed living room.<p>

"Ah Tyki-pon, what a surprise! What can I do for you my boy?" the Earl asked his usual wide grin present on his face. Tyki absently noticed there were green flowers on his hat today.

"Well it's just that I've been unable to perform any of my usual duties lately and Sheryl says the people are starting to wonder about my absence." Here he looked up at the earl to judge his reaction but all that greeted him was the ever present grin.

"There is a ball tomorrow evening," he continued, "and I was wondering if I would be allowed to go. I understand that you wanted Lavi to settle in first before going out in to the public with him, but I believe he would be able to handle it."

"Hmm" the Earl said thoughtfully." Well then if you believe he is ready then I trust you Tyki-pon."

Tyki nodded and was about to leave the room when the earl continued, "Don't break my trust though Tyki-pon, you wouldn't like the consequences."

Stiffly Tyki turned back around and with a slight bow said, "Of course, lord millennium." Before turning back around and finally leaving the room.

As he closed the door he could hear the laughter of the Millennium lord.

* * *

><p>AN Now just to be clear I'd like to say something, Tyki does NOT like Lavi yet. Sure he thinks Lavi is cute and likes teasing him, but he has NO feelings for him. I just don't see Tyki as being someone who has problems with admitting he thinks someone looks good to himself. He's way too laidback to go 'nd make a fuss about something like that. He ís the Noah of pleasure after all ;) Just thought I'd clear that up before people start worrying im going to fast.. xXx-64


	7. Chapter 7

AN/ : Hey everyone and welcome to chappie 7! Im sorry it took so long for me to update, but i got ill and then I had a lot of catching up to do with school...  
>I'm all better now though so the next chapter probably won't take as long. ^^<br>also thanks for all the reviews, alerts and faves, I really appreciate it.  
>Disclaimer : I don't own -Man<p>

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><p>That next day Lavi woke up strangely well rested. Sure since that first night he had been able to relax a lot better, but his thoughts were still plagued by memories of the order and often prevented him from getting a good night's rest.<p>

Looking at the clock on the nightstand besides the bed he let out a startled yelp. The clock read 10 am. Now for most people this would be no reason to react the way the bookman's apprentice did. Most people however did not live more than half their lives with a very irritable panda, who could and would snap their heads off if they ever overslept. Lavi had learned very early on in his apprenticeship that those five minutes just weren't worth it.

Luckily for the redhead he quickly realized the panda was far away from him now and wouldn't be able to hurt him…at least he hoped he wouldn't. Still he couldn't help but wonder where Tyki had run of to. Most of the time the Noah was already waiting on him when he finished his morning routine and now that he was two hours late he was nowhere to be seen.

Shrugging it off and deciding he'd find out soon enough Lavi quickly took a shower and got dressed.

After looking himself over in the mirror one last time he walked out into the hallway. Only to almost stumble back in his room when he was hit full force by what he now recognized as Road's tackle hug. Something he had gotten dreadfully familiar with since the little homework episode in the library.

Awkwardly he patted the girls head, before extracting himself from the deathtrap she called her arms.

"Lavi!"

"Hey Road." The former-exorcist greeted the hyper girl in front of him, remembering his question from earlier he decided he may as well ask. "Where's Tyki?"

"Uncle Tyki said he had some business to take care of, so he asked me to take care of you for today." The girl said, looking quite happy at the prospect.

Lavi couldn't suppress a small chuckle at the exuberant look on the young Noah's face. Luckily for him though Road was too caught up in her rambling about what they were going to do to really notice.

"…and then we can go play with Lero, and then you can do my homework, and then…and then.."

Seeing his chance Lavi quickly interrupted the little Noah. "How about we go and get some breakfast first okay? We can do whatever you want later."

"Okay!" and before Lavi knew it, Road had somehow managed to get a deathgrip on his hand and was impatiently pulling him along to the kitchens.

Once there he quickly made himself a sandwich and ate it, before he was one again pulled away by the bubbly Noah girl.

* * *

><p>Road hadn't been kidding when she said she needed Lavi to do her homework again. It was late afternoon and they, meaning Lavi, had been going over the exercises for about an hour now. For someone with Lavi's brains that was saying something.<p>

When the door finally opened and Tyki, accompanied by Lulubell oddly enough, entered the stuffy library the bookman couldn't say he minded at all.

All happiness dissipated though, when he saw the mischievous look in the other man's eyes and the smirk on his lips.

"Good afternoon, Road, Lavi-chin." The man said, smirking even wider at the last part.

Lavi, feeling a bit dull from spending over an hour doing very easy exercises in a stuffy library, decided to just ignore the man's taunt and instead just nodded in greeting. Next to him Road also greeted her family, in her own typical enthousiastic way.

When Tyki finally managed to untangle himself from another of Road's signature deathhugs, he quickly straightened out his clothes before immediately getting to the point of his sudden visit and earlier absence.

"We'll be going to a party tonight." He started, indicating Lavi and himself.

"A party?" The redhead inquired distrustfully. He really didn't like that look in the older man's eyes.

"What kind of party?"

"The lord Meyfoi's annual gala ball of course." The brunette answered with a smirk clear on his face.  
>Said smirk only widened when he saw the now pale face of the ginger in front of him. He really was too easy to tease.<p>

Ignoring the sputtering protests of the shocked redhead he turned to his niece. He had already convinced Lulubell of his plan and now only Road remained, but he didn't think it would be too hard.

"Road." He addressed her, his smirk turning into an evil grin.

"Would you like to prepare Lavi-chin here for the party together with Lulubell?"

The little girl looked thoughtful for a minute, before she looked up at her uncle with a hopeful look on her face.

"Prepare?" She asked. "As in, dress him up and stuff?"

To the side Lavi grew just a bit paler, he knew how Road was with her dolls.

Tyki on the other hand just gave an unconcerned nod.

"Yes, as long as he is unrecognizable you can do whatever you want with him." He finished, with that same evil grin still on his face.

That look quickly changed when he saw the positively ecstatic look on Road's face though. Concern for his own safety now replacing the satisfaction he had felt at the trouble he was causing the redhead.

He knew where this was going…

"Yippee! Thank you Tyki ! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

All said male could do in return was grunt, as his air supply was once more cut off by his over exuberant niece.

When it became obvious Road was not letting go any time soon, he heaved an exasperated sigh, before using his powers to simply step through the constricting limbs around him.

Road however wasn't very happy at this and immediately a pout found its way to her formerly happy face. Luckily for Tyki though, Lulubell who had been watching silently up till now decided to intervene before the girl broke out in one of her famous temper tantrums.

"Come on Road, let's go dress up Lavi-san shall we?"

Road was quick to agree and before the fuming redhead could react he was about to get dragged through the complex once more.

"Hey wait a second! Don't I get a say in this?" The struggling redhead yelled at Tyki.

"No you don't." The man answered with another happy grin.

And with that Lavi finally lost his grip on the floor and was dragged along behind Road

"Have fun!" Tyki called after them, closing the door, before sitting down and enjoying the peaceful silence that now permeated the room.

Pretty soon though, he had to get up to go and get ready himself. As he walked in the empty hallway his thoughts briefly flashed back to Lavi's desperate yet irate expression earlier. Maybe sending him with Road hadn't been such a good idea after all… Almost immediately after the thought crossed his mind though, Tyki burst out laughing at the ridiculous notion. Still chuckling he continued to his room so he could get ready.

It wouldn't do to keep his date waiting after all.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Lavi had been dragged into what looked like a massive closet. In front of him were rows upon rows of clothes. All were covered in protective plastic bags with labels describing the contents. In the corner stood some kind of raised platform with mirrors surrounding it on all sides and the wall towards the right was covered with shelves full of fake heads wearing wigs. In the back he could just make out a couple of glass cases and he assumed that was where they kept the jewelry. Obviously this wasn't the first time the Noah were playing dress up.<p>

He was snapped out of his musings when a bunch of the plastic bags were suddenly stuffed in his arms. Dazed he looked up only to be confronted by Road, the bubbly girl pushing him towards a couple of fitting rooms he had missed in his initial scan of the room, before she ran off yelling something about getting him a wig.

Questioningly he turned to Lulubell, only for the woman to once again indicate the fitting room and tell him that if he needed any help he should just call her.

Not knowing what else to do, Lavi entered one of the small cubicles, putting the bags on the floor for lack of a better place to put them.

He chanced a look at the bags. They all just sat there, looking oh so innocent, but Lavi suddenly felt a chill go up his spine. Feeling nervous suddenly he slowly reached out a trembling hand to the zipper of the nearest bag. When his fingers finally touched it though, he quickly jerked his hand back as if burned. After a minute he heaved a sigh at his own foolishness. It was only a bag after all, how dangerous could it really be? He once again gathered his courage and reached out for the zipper. When he felt the cold metal of it touch his hand he closed his eye and, with a final deep breath, ripped open the bag.

When nothing jumped out to attack him, he slowly opened his eye and looked at the now revealed contents of the bag…and yelped. What lay there was definitely not innocent, not to Lavi at least.

He hoped it was a mistake. Lavi quickly undid the zippers of the other bags, only to be disappointed time and time again.

Eventually he couldn't take it anymore and, grabbing one of the offending garments, walked out of the cubicle.

"Lulubell?" He called and soon the female Noah appeared.

"What…is this?" He asked and with trembling hands held up the garment for the confused Noah to see.

"It's a dress, do you not know how to put it on?" The woman wondered.

"I know what it is! What I meant is, why did you give me a dress? I'm a guy in case you hadn't noticed yet!"

"Well, Tyki said you had to be unrecognizable, no one would suspect you to dress up as a woman and your features aren't overly masculine, you should be able to pull it off. That and Road really wanted to see you in a dress."

Seeing the unbelieving look on the gingers face she just continued. "Road really likes dressing people up."

"That, that's not the problem."The redhead said in a broken voice.

"Should I help you with the dress?" the Noah asked, apparently not noticing or caring about the boy's distress.

Seeing that he was not going to get anywhere with the woman, and knowing better than to even try convincing Road, Lavi gave up. He knew a lost cause when he saw one.

"No, that's alright, I'll…I'll put it on myself."

"Okay then." And with a final look at the redhead, she walked back over to wherever she came from.

Left alone Lavi took one last look at the frilly pink thing in his hands, before dazedly making his way over to his cubicle.

Tyki would pay for this.

* * *

><p>After two hours had gone by Tyki decided the girls should've finished with Lavi by now. So he left his room to go pick up his charge. Leisurely the unsuspecting Noah made his way over to the biggest dressing room, where he knew they would be. Lulubell had most of her clothes there after all, no other room in the house being big enough to house the many garments she used for her disguises, and Road also used the room to keep some of the accessories for her dolls, most of her favorite wigs being stored there. Yes they should be there.<p>

Silently Tyki wondered how Lavi was faring. The poor boy was probably exhausted by now and the evening hadn't even really started yet. It couldn't have been too bad though. He had deliberately sent Lulubell with Road so she could stop her if the girl went overboard with her doll up fantasies. Surely Lulubell would help the redhead?

He was still chuckling a bit at the image of a desperate Lavi trying to fight off an enthusiastic Road with a makeup kit, when he finally reached the large double doors of the dressing room.

Tyki softly opened the doors, wanting to sneak a look at the dressed up bookman first, before making his presence known.

What he saw completely blew his mind.

* * *

><p>AN : For anyone who's wondering what that last scene looks like, me's got fanart ! the wonderful djuralover has decided to draw it! just go to my profile nd click on the link, I promise you won't be dissapointed.


	8. Chapter 8

AN/ : OMG, im so so so sorry! This really took ages, but I had exams and just the last few weeks of school and they were bloody horrible. .teacher. decided their schedule was off, so they needed to cram all their tests in the last few weeks. not fun. anyway It's finally vacationtime so the next update will probably be out much sooner! I'd also like to thank all of you for the wonderful reviews, they always managed to brighten up my day :) Now on to the chapter!

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><p>Recap :<br>_  
>Tyki softly opened the doors, wanting to sneak a look at the dressed up bookman first, before making his presence known.<em>

_What he saw completely blew his mind._

* * *

><p>Lavi was not a happy bookman. Actually, Lavi was not a happy anything right now.<p>

This feeling of incredible not happiness only increased when he took another look in the mirror.

Staring back at him was, well, him. Only instead of his normal, cheery, jean-and-shirt clad self the mirror showed the visage of a young girl. The girl looked to be about 18 years old and a healthy blush colored her cheeks. Her wealth of red hair, no thanks to Road's wig collection, was pulled back into two cute pigtails on either side of her head, and her one visible emerald orb was framed by long, raven lashes. A plain heart shaped eye patch covered her other eye, adding an air of mystery to the otherwise innocent looking girl. A shimmering purple painted her lips, nicely matching the long purple dress she was wearing. The long purple, _ruffled and_ _lacey_ dress.

Lavi could feel his immaculately painted lips curl back in a snarl. Why he needed all the ruffles and laces was beyond him, but Road had been adamant that he need them to cover up his lack of curves. Had it not been him who had to wear the garment he might've agreed, as it was now though it was all he could do not to grab his hammer and put the damn thing on fire.

He would have remained snarling at his reflection for a while longer yet, but the moment was interrupted by Tyki entering the dressing room.

The Noah looked quite handsome, wearing a simple black suit with a golden tie, which brought out the amber flecks in his brown human eyes.

Lavi could not say his mood really improved upon seeing the other man, the other _suit-wearing_ man, enter the room.

"YOU!" He immediately screamed in outrage. Something which not really helped his already very masculine image, but he was too far gone to really care at this point.

He stomped over to the other man, thankful that he had at least managed to stop Road from putting him in heels. He wouldn't have come across as even remotely scary if he had tripped over his own feet after all.

The addressed man startled, blinking once to clear his mind, before letting his eyes settle on the raging ginger before him. "Lavi, you look lovely-" he started, only to be interrupted by the redhead's furious tirade.

"That's it? You look lovely? I'm wearing a dress Mikk, a dress! Do you even know what that is hmm? Well let me spell it out for you : Dress, noun :An outer garment for women and girls, consisting of bodice and skirt in one piece. Do I look like a woman to you ?"

The poor Noah could only stare, completely overwhelmed, as the furious redhead completely ignored his attempts to calm him down and kept on ranting. It did not help either that Lavi actually made a very pretty girl, but he figured he better keep that thought to himself, lest the boy start acting out any of the various, very…creative threats he kept yelling.

Watching from the sidelines as the furious redhead proceeded to verbally tear her uncle a new one, Road couldn't help but note the distracted look on the Noah's face. As she studied him more carefully, a mischievous smile slowly started playing on her lips.

The smile was still there when her uncle finally managed to coach Lavi out of the room.

This would be fun.

* * *

><p>An hour later Lavi had calmed down, if only somewhat. This was a good thing, for they had now arrived at the lord Meyfoi's ball. On their way Tyki had explained some things about the lord and why the Noah even bothered with these kinds of things. Initially he had only wanted to share the basics with the furious bookman's apprentice, but when he saw how Lavi slowly started relaxing the more he spoke, he quickly started recounting everything he could think of to the curious redhead. Not that the boy openly showed his curiosity of course, but there was no hiding the intrigued glint in the bookman's one uncovered eye upon all the new knowledge he received.<p>

Now the two men were standing in the entrance hall of a grand mansion and Lavi couldn't say he was impressed. His title as a bookman's apprentice had assured he'd visited these kinds of gatherings before and compared to some of the other places he'd been to this place was not so special. The decorations were garish and the architect had obviously never heard of a proper color scheme, instead having decided to paint almost the entire mansion a golden color and adding golden accents everywhere. There were golden drapes, the cushioning of the chairs was gold and even the tiling on the floor was an off white with golden flecks. It made the place look quite fake as a result.

Lavi looked over at the tall Noah besides him and saw the barely concealed disgust in the man's expression, looks like he wasn't the only one who enjoyed the surroundings. He had to suppress a snicker though, when he saw Tyki fiddling with the golden tie around his neck. The man clearly regretted contributing to the golden mess around them and Lavi suddenly felt very pleased with the purple color of his dress.

He was pulled out of his musings by the approach of a greasy man, looking to be in his midfifties.

"Ah lord Mikk! Such a pleasure to see you again!" The man enthusiastically greeted the Noah.

Lavi inwardly shivered at the man's disgustingly slimy tone.

"Lord Meyfoi." Tyki coolly greeted the man, obviously the brunette wasn't too fond of the man himself.

Meyfoi didn't seem to notice though and soon enough his eyes roamed over to Lavi standing by Tyki's side.

"And who might this lovely young lady be?" The lord inquired, a hungry look appearing on his face, and Lavi wanted nothing more than to grab the hammer strapped to his leg and knock it off.

Tyki seemed to have noticed this as well, because his tone was even frostier when he next spoke, " This is lady Lariel, she is a good friend of lady Road's." there was an obvious emphasizes on the last part, a clear threat that she was under his protection.

Meyfoi seemed to notice, for he visibly recoiled and a slight tremor entered his voice, "ah yes, pleased to make your acquaintance my lady."

Lavi just nodded his head slightly, he really didn't feel inclined to talk to this man.

"If you would follow me, lord Mikk? Your brother is waiting for us." The man continued, chancing a nervous glance at Tyki.

"I will join you in a minute." The man replied still in that frosty tone of voice, before he turned to Lavi and when he next spoke his voice was significantly warmer, "Come Lariel, I'll take you to see Road's other friends."

And before he could protest Tyki had taken him by the arm and escorted him to a group of girls, all of which started to giggle as soon as they saw them approach. Or more like as soon as they saw Tyki approach, Lavi thought wryly.

"Lord Mikk!"The boldest of the giggling girls crooned out as they came to a halt near the girls.

"What can we do for you my lord?" another girl cooed, fluttering her lashes exaggeratedly.

"Hello ladies," Tyki answered a charming smile on his face, "I was wondering if you could watch over lady Lariel here for me?"

"Of course we'll watch over your…girlfriend for you." The first girl spoke up again with a slight glare at Lavi when Tyki wasn't looking. Lavi had to hide a sigh at the girl's childish actions, these girls were really Road's friends?

"Oh no, she's not my girlfriend, she's a friend of my niece." Tyki answered the obvious question and Lavi wondered if he was the only one to notice the slight undercurrent of irritation his voice now carried. Apparently he was.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" The girl immediately exclaimed, though the demeaning look she gave Lavi immediately afterwards made quite clear she was anything but.

"Well don't you worry my lord, we'll take good care of her for you." She continued lightly putting her hand on Tyki's arm in an, once again, obvious attempt to get his attention. Tyki just ignored her though, instead turning to face Lavi, accidently causing the hand to slip of his arm.

'Accidently, yeah right.' Lavi thought when he saw the repressed annoyance in the man's golden gaze. And while Lavi also did not like these girls, he couldn't help but feel slightly vindicated at the older man's obvious suffering.

"Then I'll take my leave now. See you later Lariel, ladies." And with a short nod of his head Tyki disappeared into the crowd, abandoning Lavi to the girls.

"Oh he is just soooo handsome." One of the girls sighed.

"Yeah, those eyes." Another agreed in a breathless voice.

"Just the eyes? Look at that body." Another one said while fanning herself exaggeratedly.

"And he's bloody rich to." The first girl added.

Lavi could only listen, completely mortified, as the girls continued to fawn over Tyki. While he had to grudgingly admit that Tyki was indeed quite handsome, he really did _not_ need to hear this.

"I heard his looks aren't the only things that are good about him either." The girl that had been fanning herself said with a meaningful wink.

That was more than enough girltalk for Lavi for one evening, or ever if he had a say in it. Blushing he frantically looked around for some form of escape, only to see a girl silently standing slightly to the side of the group. Deciding she couldn't be worse than the others he approached her.

"Hey I'm Lariel, who are you?" he asked her.

"Who? Me?" She asked unsurely. Lavi nodded at her. "Well uhm…" The girl stuttered a bit before continuing," My name's Rose." She finally finished, before nervously turning her gaze to her shuffling feet again. The poor girl was horribly shy, Lavi thought, but at least she seemed like she'd be a lot better company then the other girls.

Maybe this night wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

><p>It had been an hour since Tyki had left him and Lavi had to admit things could've been much worse. Rose turned out to indeed be a very sweet girl and once she got over her initial shyness was a lot of fun to talk to. He had learnt she was the only daughter of a minor lord, which was why the other, richer, girls were so mean to her. To his great surprise he also found out that she really was a friend of Road's, though he had been right about the other girls. Apparently Road liked them about as much as Lavi himself did.<p>

All in all it had been a fun hour.

It seems like it wouldn't be allowed to last though because through the dancers Lavi saw the greasy and quickly approaching form of their host.

"Shit." He murmured for a moment forgetting his company.

"Lavi?" Rose asked worriedly, "is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing bad but yeah, you'll see." He said distractedly still tracking the man making his way through the dancers, while secretly looking around for any trace of the golden eyed man he had come here with.

Just when Rose was about to question him again she was interrupted by their hosts arrival.

"Miss. Lariel, such a pleasure to see you again!" The man called out jovially, attempting to grab his hand to kiss it, only for Lavi to quickly pull it out of his grasp. Silently thanking whoever was listening for the gloves covering his hands and taking note to burn them later.

Meyfoi looked slightly put off for a moment, before the greasy smile returned to his face.

"Would you like to dance?" He asked, extending his hand to Lavi once again.

"No thank you, I'd rather not." Lavi said frostily.

Rose meanwhile looked a bit frightened before slowly excusing herself and making her way into the surrounding crowd, but not before giving Lavi a reassuring look. He could only hope she was off to get Tyki, because If this man didn't back off soon he was going to get a hammer to the face.

"I insist." Meyfoi growled and lost his patience, attempting to forcibly grab Lavi. Lavi, however was not just any girl, or a girl at all for that matter and easily managed to wrench free from the man's disgusting grasp.

Luckily for Meyfoi Rose chose this moment to return, Tyki and another man with a remarkable resemblance to the Noah following behind.

"I believe the lady said she doesn't want to dance."

Tyki interfered, grabbing the arm Meyfoi had extended to Lavi again in another attempt to grab him. This time the frost in his voice was noticeable to everyone and Lavi felt a shiver go down his spine at the pure fury he could hear there. He really wouldn't want to be Meyfoi right now.

Seeing how Tyki had everything more than under control he slowly made his way over to Rose.

"Thanks." He whispered.

The girl just nodded slightly a blush coloring her cheeks, "You would've done the same for me." She whispered back.

"Yeah but I'm still happy you did it, I don't know what would've happened otherwise." Lavi finished darkly more out of anger at the so-called lord then any fear, but obviously Rose didn't know this.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." She attempted to encourage her new friend up. "Tyki and Sheryl will take care of everything."

"Sheryl?" Lavi wondered out loud.

"He's Road's father, didn't you know that?" Rose wondered.

Lavi could've cursed himself for his stupidity. "Oh yeah, now that you mention it, Road did say that once I think, I just never saw him before."

"Oh, okay." Rose said, before falling silent again.

Lavi suppressed a relieved sigh, it seemed she bought it. He didn't like having to lie to the sweet girl but it really was for the better in this case.

Hearing footsteps approach he looked up and saw a still furious Tyki approaching them, Road's father trailing behind. Behind them he saw a cowering lord Meyfoi sitting on his knees, thoroughly shaken.

"Hey." Lavi said awkwardly when the two had come to a halt before Rose and him.

"Hello Rose, Lariel." Sheryl, obviously the calmer of the two said.

"Hey Mr. Kamelot!" Rose answered happily. "Is Road doing better already?" she wondered.

Lavi looked up startled, he didn't know Road was sick.

"My cute daughter is doing much better yes, thank you for asking." Sheryl said with what seemed like a genuine smile.

"Good!" Rose answered happily, "Tell her I said bye okay?"

"Of course." Sheryl agreed with a nod.

Meanwhile Lavi was left watching from the sidelines with a pissed off Tyki. Joy.

"So, uhm thank you for your helping me just now." He said hesitantly, afraid of focusing the man's apparent rage on himself.

Tyki seemed to startle a bit, having been much to focused on trying to restrain himself from going back and letting his tease feast on that scums body. He didn't know why he pissed him off so much, but the fact is he did and now Tyki would do nothing rather than go back there and finish what he started.

Still glaring he turned to Lavi, but when he saw the nervous look in the redhead's eye his glare softened a bit and Tyki accepted his thanks with a nod.

Awkwardly the two stood there for a bit, watching Sheryl and Rose interact, before Tyki decided he'd had enough and cleared his throat to get his attention.

"Yes?" the man turned around, a questioning look on his face.

"Lariel and I will be leaving now, we'll see you at the manor."

"Yes of course, I'll see you soon." Sheryl answered.

The last word hadn't even left his mouth yet, or Tyki was already dragging Lavi to the exit with him. The redhead only had enough time to wave at Rose and Sheryl and call out a hurried goodbye before he was whisked away. Struggling to keep up with the taller male's pace as Tyki obviously had no intention of slowing down. When they got to the carriage that had brought them there, Tyki just silently opened the door for Lavi to get in, before walking around to the other side and getting in himself, barking a few short orders at the driver as he did so and within minutes they were of.

Eventually the tense silence became too much for the exhausted redhead to bear and he drifted off. Glad for the calming embrace of slumber.

Leaving behind one thoughtful Noah to gaze over his sleeping form.

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><p>Bit of an awkward ending but yeah, better than nothing right? anyway I hope y'all enjoyed and review please! Let's hit that twenty!<br>Just some short notes :  
>Lariel the name I chose for Lavi in this chapter means God's lioness in Hebrew, Lavi means Lion in the same language, and with him being an exorcist and all, I thought it'd fit :)<br>Also the last linebreak just won't work and any x's or other things i put there also dissapear, sorry! I'll try and correct it later on, promise ;)


	9. Chapter 9

Changing for the better : Chapter 9

AN/ ok so this is really really short, but I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks and I wanted to post at least something before I left. It's just a short piece from Tyki's pov, but I hope you all like it anyways :) xXx~4-ever

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><p>Tyki glanced to the side, letting his eyes fall on the moonlit visage of the sleeping redhead next to him. He watched as the boy mumbled something in his sleep, a slight frown marring his face. Silently he watched as his face kept contorting, growing more restless as time went on.<p>

He didn't know how long he had been watching, conflicted, before he finally reached out and tried to smooth out the frown on the boys face with a lightly trembling, gloved hand. Stunned he watched as the redhead's features almost immediately smoothed out, his body unconsciously moving closer to the provided comfort, causing him to topple over and land in the brunettes lap.

Cautiously Tyki watched on, wary for the redhead to wake. When he showed no sign of waking Tyki heaved a relieved sigh, only to stop and wonder why exactly he cared if the redhead woke or not. It was no problem of his if Lavi didn't get enough sleep.

This was not the first time he had found himself thinking these kind of strange thoughts lately. Ever since the fiery bookman had first entered the mansion he would find himself worrying over the strangest things.

In the beginning he had just blamed his orders. He was supposed to keep him safe after all, so it wasn't all that weird that he'd find himself taking care of the other. Slowly but surely though, he'd found himself caring more and more about the little bookman's apprentice. More than he thought he should care for their temporary ally.

This new and unfamiliar feeling of care for someone other than his family had reached a new height earlier this same evening, when he had seen that filthy lord assaulting Lavi. Tyki couldn't remember ever coming so close to losing control before, it had only been too easy to give in to the whispered calls of his darker side and, had Sheryll not been there, he feared he really would have snapped and killed everyone around.

Now he really could no longer deny having these feelings. It was obvious he was protective of the redhead and that he cared for him, at least on some level. What these feelings would bring him and what would happen along the way? He'd just have to wait and see.

Slowly a smirk took over the Noah's face, completely relaxed again now that he had thought things over and reached a solution, and he absently started toying with Lavi's hair.

Things had just become a whole lot more interesting.


	10. Chapter 10

An/ Hey everyone I'm back! I've had a lovely holiday and I got something for ya :P yup the new chapter! and this time it's a real chapter, not just a little something. hope you can all forgive me for the wait. but we get Allen so I hope that cheers y'all up a bit and Im already working on the next one so that shouldn't take too long either :)  
>As always a big thank you to all of you who read,reviewed,faved, alerted etc. you're a big help :) Now let's get on with the chapter, ne? ;)<p>

Disclaimer : I dont own it but I do love to screw around with it, deal with it.

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><p>Chapter 10<p>

It was now 2 weeks after the disastrous dinner party and everything had returned to normal for Lavi, or as normal as things could be when living with a bunch of homicidal Noah.

Most of them still left him alone though, on the Earl's orders he expected, but he didn't mind. Two Noah were more than enough for the poor bookman's apprentice.

He was once again dressed comfortably in jeans and a shirt and he wouldn't have it any other way. Sure, he'd had to avoid Road and her make-up kit multiple times by now but the trouble was well worth his continued masculinity.

Tyki was no help in that matter either since he only read his books and laughed when the two would come running by. Something Lavi was none too pleased by. When he'd told the older man as such in no few words the Noah had just waved it off, saying it was good training or something of the like, before proceeding to tease him about how he'd been such a pretty girl and maybe he should just let Road get her way. The only thing to have saved Tyki from a fuming redhead back then had been the sound of Road skipping down the hallway towards them.

When he wasn't spending his time running from Road or bantering with Tyki Lavi could be found in the library and even then there was no rest for the wicked, or those living with them at least.

Especially now that some of them seemed to have found a new favorite pastime. Road had apparently decided that Tyki and him were much more interesting than whatever she did with her time before the party. Now she spent most of her time watching them, a weird glint in her golden eyes that Lavi just couldn't place.

Honestly, he was a bit creeped out by it all. Where before she'd only show up when she had homework that needed doing or when very bored. Now, she just sat there and _stared. _No talking, no bugging them into doing their homework, just _staring. _Lavi was a bookman, an exorcist, he'd been trained to fight monsters and record the greatest atrocities without blinking an eye, but something about that little girls secretive smile and knowing golden orbs just scared the hell out of him.

All in all he was pleased to be leaving it all behind for awhile.

Last night Tyki had come to him and told him they'd be leaving around noon. Easy to say, Lavi had been overjoyed. He wasn't used to being cooped up all the time. With Bookman he'd always been moving from place to place, recording history as they went, and with the order there had always been some mission or another that needed an exorcist to take care of it. Now that he lived with the Noah he'd be confined to the manor for days on end. No, Lavi could definitely use the break.

Besides, he was curious. Tyki had mentioned meeting up with some friends of his and he couldn't help but wonder what kind of beings could be friends with a Noah.

After checking he had everything he'd need, Tyki told him to pack lightly so it wasn't much, he shouldered his backpack and moved to the entrance where Tyki and Road were already waiting for him.

Upon seeing him enter Road immediately started smiling. Wary Lavi looked her over for the dreaded make-up kit or any other torture tools the girl carried around nowadays but found nothing. Still creeped out he made his way over to Tyki's side, carefully positioning himself so the taller male was between him and Road, who only started to smile wider when she saw what he did. Suppressing a shiver Lavi decided to ignore her for now.

Looking up in the amused orbs of the Noah besides him Lavi knew it was gonna be a looong day. Figuring he'd just get this over with the redhead told him he was ready to go.

"Good." Tyki answered him with a small smile.

"You seem happy." Lavi remarked, by now familiar enough with the Noah to notice the true happiness hidden in his smile.

"That's because I am." The brunette answered enigmatically. His smile widening slightly at seeing the curiosity brimming in the bookman's lone eye. A mischievous twinkle appearing in his own orbs as he waited patiently for the redhead to give in.

"Why?" Lavi asked finally when it became apparent Tyki was not going to continue, ignoring the smirk the Noah sent his way.

"It's been awhile since I last got to see Eeze and the others," He began, pausing but quickly continuing before the redhead could interrupt him, "It's hard finding the time to keep in contact with your human friends when you're a Noah."

It took a moment for Lavi to process this but soon, "Human?" he blurted out. "_You_ have _human_ friends?"

"Of course."Tyki said, not sounding the least bothered by the redhead's disbelieving tone.

"Having all these different identities…that's half the fun." He continued on with a slightly crazed glint lighting up his golden orbs.

When Lavi still looked like he wanted to protest he pointed something else out to the bookman.

"Besides, Road has a human friend to, remember? You met her at the party."

This startled the confused ginger. "You mean Rose? She really is your friend, I mean you think of her as your friend as well?" Lavi turned to Road who had kept quiet until then.

"Yup!" The little Noah said happily, "Rosie and me are great friends!"

"But, but…" Lavi stammered uncomprehendingly.

"But what?" Road asked innocently.

The redhead finally seemed to have regained some of his senses. "But you're trying to destroy humanity! How can you be their friend, yet try to destroy them at the same time!"

Tyki hummed thoughtfully, obviously trying to think about how best to explain this to the confused exorcist. "It is true that we're Noah and that eventually they will probably die." He started slowly. "But before we were Noah, we were still human. We can still talk with and be friends with humans. Sure, someday they will have to die, but don't you all eventually?"

"Uhu," Road nodded along with her uncle before adding in a much more serious tone of voice than Lavi was used to. "If it makes everyone happy then why not? We should have fun while we can."

Lavi was stunned. Somehow, in some very twisted way, that actually made sense. That and he had never seen the Noah as being able to be nice to humans, never mind genuinely care for them.

Sure, in his time here he had realized they were not just the coldhearted killers he had thought of them as, at least to each other and yeah, they were nice enough to him now as well. But that were probably just the Earl's orders anyway and he had no doubt they'd kill him if those orders ever were to change.

He could see why people would want to be their friend though, besides the whole want-to-destroy-the-world-and-murder-everyone-thing they were easy enough to get along with, when they put their minds to it at least, and somehow he doubted they had informed their friends about this.

Road was a pretty sweet, if a bit creepy girl and Tyki was a pretty relaxed and, he grudgingly admitted, charming man when he wanted to be. So yeah, he could see why people might like them, he was just surprised the Noah would return their sympathies.

He'd have to think on this.

Tyki smirked while looking at the glazed look in the bookman's eye. He really was just too cute for his own good when he did that.

He didn't know how long he had been staring when he heard Road clear her throat softly, too soft for the still thinking human to hear. Looking up with a questioning hum of the same volume he saw his nieces gleeful visage staring back at him.

"See something you like?" She wondered, an evil little smirk gracing her otherwise innocent features.

Amused Tyki shook his head and chanced a quick look at the bookman to ensure he still hadn't noticed anything. Hmm no, still good.

"Perhaps," he finally answered with an elegant quirk of his brow. "What's it to you?"

Hearing his answer Road finally broke out in a full-scale smirk.

"Oh nothing."' She answered casually and batted her lashes, trying to look as innocent as possible. The smirk and the glee in her golden eyes betrayed her though.

Tyki chuckled softly at his nieces antics, typical Road. He'd suspected she knew about his increased interest in the redhead for awhile now and this only confirmed his suspicions.

He wasn't bothered by her knowing though, at least this way he knew she'd leave Lavi alone for sure. They had an understanding after all. No playing with and/or destroying the other's toys, unless they had express permission to do so. Now that Tyki had so obviously claimed Lavi as his to play with, he wouldn't need to worry about Road playing dolls with his little bookman anymore.

Feeling like he had given Lavi enough time to think for now he continued on with his normal volume,

"Road, I think it's about time to go now."

Besides him he could see Lavi blinking dazedly, obviously trying to fight his way back to reality.

"Okay!"She chirped, still smirking at him with a knowing look in her eyes.

With a snap of her fingers a heart shaped door came floating out of the floor. "This'll take you to about 3 km from Gizo, from there on it's up to you."

Tyki just nodded his thanks silently and with a halfhearted wave over his shoulder he grabbed lavi's shoulder lightly, dragging him through the glowing doorway.

Startled Lavi looked back and saw Road waving at them, "Have fun guys!" she yelled after them, that creepy smile once again decorating her innocent features, though it seemed to have worsened somehow and…did she just wink at them? Lavi blinked but before he could ask, the door fell firmly shut. Shaking off his surprise he decided he must have imagined it and that he would just ignore it, though he couldn't ignore the slight shiver that ran down his spine at the imagined image, something about that was just wrong.

Besides him, but unbeknownst to the bookman, Tyki just shook his head with an exasperated sigh at his niece's antics. Typical Road.

Breaking away from his staring contest with the door Lavi turned back around, only to see that Tyki was already miles ahead of him.

"Hey! Wait for me, you bastard!" He yelled, before storming of after him.

The only answer was a mirthful chuckle from the man in front of him and Lavi couldn't help but wonder if escaping Road was truly worth following the sadistic Noah. It really was going to be a looong day.

* * *

><p><strong>Black order headquarters<strong>

Grudgingly Allen made his way out of the meal hall and to Komui's office. This mission had better be important or heads would roll, Komui's in particular.

Unconsciously he chuckled evilly and rubbed his hands. No one disturbed his lunch and got away with it. No one. As the chuckling slowly escalated into full-blown evil cackling and a dark cloud started to form over his head Allen did not notice the way the halls quickly cleared.

When he reached the science department he waved cheerily at the workers and called out a polite good afternoon.

Most of the unsuspecting department started to return the greeting happily, but then they noticed the dark cloud surrounding him and quickly made themselves scarce.

Allen for his part didn't even notice. Too focused on plotting Komui's demise.  
>He'd just returned from a mission, he was tired, cranky and hungry and Komui interrupted the first decent meal he'd had in days. No Allen was not a happy exorcist.<p>

Reaching the door to his superiors office Allen paused and knocked, ever polite. When he heard someone yell enter he quickly did just that.

"Allen!" Komui yelled in his usual goofy voice, twirling around in his chair and putting his pink bunny cup on the desk in front of him before continuing. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Good afternoon Komui." Allen said politely, the dark cloud intensifying.

Feeling his impending doom in the air Komui gulped and looked about nervously.

"I trust you have a good reason for calling me here?"Allen continued, polite smile still present.

Recognizing his only chance for what it was Komui quickly started explaining.

"Akuma have been seen in the town of Gizo, but they don't seem to be hurting the people." He stumbled out. Here he paused for a second before continuing gravely. "We think the Noah might have something to do with it."

At the mention of the Noah the dark cloud surrounding Allen intensified briefly before dispersing.

"Are you sure it's them?" He asked, now no longer concerned with his lost lunch.

"Not one hundred percent," Komui admitted, "but the possibility is there."

"And you need me to check it out?" Allen asked.

"Yes." Komui nodded. "I'd sent another exorcist with you but you're the only one available right now."

"Very well then, Allen nodded seriously. "When will I be leaving?"

"Wellll…" Komui chanced a look at his watch. "Your train is coming by iiin…three minutes!"He finished happily. When he looked back up he could just see the shadow of the white-haired exorcist disappearing in a massive cloud of dust.

"Bye Allen! Have a nice trip!" He yelled after him cheerily, before falling back in his chair and wiping the nervous sweat from his brow.

"That was close." He mumbled. "Too close."

"Reever! Remember me never to call for Allen at lunch time ever again! He yelled shakily.

Still looking a bit shaken himself Reever made his way into his superiors office. "Shall I add breakfast and dinner to that list to, sir?"

Komui thought it over for a minute before nodding, "That might be for the best." He said gravely. "And teatime, don't forget teatime."

Reever gulped before nodding and hurried of to start making his list.

Komui sat back in his chair with a relieved sigh.

The things he did for humanity.

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><p>And that's it for now, hope y'all enjoyed and review! :P also can someone tell me if I spelled Eeze's name right and what the name's of the other two miners are? I looked it up but they spell it different everywhere and while Im pretty sure one of em is called momo the other name tends to differ...xXx~64<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

**An/**Okay finally a slightly faster update :) hope you like it and enjoy the happiness while it's still there, 'cause next chappie things are slowly starting to go downhill for our poor bunny ;) As always a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, faved and alerted! you're all awesome and a great motivation :) Now let's get on with the chappy shall we?

Disclaimer : I really can't be bothered to type this out again, the bloody site is named _fan_fiction, figure it out y'rself would ya?

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><p><strong>Changing for the better <strong>

**Chapter eleven**

After an hour long track through the forest the two had finally reached the mining town of Gizo.

Along the way Tyki had finally caved and told Lavi a bit about his friends after the curious redhead's wining became too much for the man. Really it was almost ridiculous, he was used to dealing with Road's constant wining, so it shouldn't be so easy for the redhead to convince him.

One look in that emerald eye though and Tyki was lost. For a guy Lavi had to have the cutest puppy dog look the Noah had ever seen. The worst thing was that the redhead didn't even seem to be conscious of the torture he was subjecting the poor Noah to.

Upon reaching the edge of the forest surrounding the town Tyki halted abruptly, causing an in thought Lavi to crash against his back. serves him right for being so damn cute. Snickering silently he turned around to look at the redhead. He was startled though to see he could not find him everywhere. His shock was short-lived though when he heard a groan coming from below him. Looking down he found the wayward bookman sprawled across the forest floor.

This time he couldn't suppress a chuckle at the helpless image the young man made like that. The chuckle quickly turned into full blown laughter when he saw Lavi glaring back at him, a likely subconscious pout on his lips.

"Oi, are you gonna help me up or not?" The disgruntled exorcist grunted out.

"Sure." Tyki managed to say when he calmed down a bit.

Still snickering he extended a hand in the redhead's direction and waited for the redhead to grab it.

Because of his continued laughter he completely missed the mischievous smirk the redhead sent his way, if he had he might have thought a bit differently about helping the exorcist. As it was though he was completely unprepared when the world suddenly turned around him and the next moment he found himself laying face down on the ground.

Sitting up dazedly he waited to regain his bearings before looking at his attacker. Lavi was doubled over in laughter and it was obvious this was going to take awhile.

Sighing Tyki sat back, he might as well relax not that he was on the ground anyway.

After a couple of minutes though Tyki cleared his throat and the boy struggled to calm down. Gasping for breath he made the fatal mistake of looking at the normally so dignified Noah sitting next to him. That proved to be too much for his self control and soon he was laughing again, Tyki could swear he saw a tear leak out of the boys lone eye. Resigning himself to waiting, Tyki sat back once again. If this was going to take any longer he might as well enjoy the view.

Eventually Lavi stopped laughing, though he couldn't help the grin that was still present on his face.

"Done now?" Tyki wondered.

"Uhu." Lavi managed to snicker out.

"Good then we can continue." The Noah said.

"Sure thing," Lavi said, "but Tyki?"

"Yes?" The man wondered exasperatedly.

"I'd take this off first." The exorcist grinned before reaching up and plucking a small clump of dirt with a bright yellow flower in it from the others head. Chuckling once again at the others stunned looked he jumped up and waited patiently for the older man to recover.

Tyki looked on stunned, but that shock quickly turned into laughter. He could see now what the redhead had found so hilarious. That and he just couldn't be mad at the redhead when he looked so happy. It was the happiest he had seen Lavi and Tyki had to admit, it looked good on him.

Sighing he stood up and carefully patted over his head for any other surprises, when he didn't find any he called out for the cheery redhead to wait a minute .

When Lavi asked why Tyki just ignored him and looked in the direction of the city.

After a couple of minutes without anything interesting happening Lavi sat down, resigning himself to a long wait. Only to jump up again almost immediately when he saw something heading their way fast.

Having been an exorcist long enough to recognize the shape for what it was he pulled his hammer from his belt and stood up. Ready to face the oncoming akuma.

The akuma itself was a big birdlike creature. It was a pale bluish color and it's shape had something of a falcon's. Lavi estimated it to be around a level 3, maybe a 2 if he were lucky for once.

As the bird neared them Lavi readied his hammer and when it stopped a couple of meters in front of them he tensed, ready to swing. He was stopped though by a gloved hand clamping around his wrist. Startled he looked up, only to see Tyki slowly shaking his head at him.

"That will not be necessary." He said in his smooth voice to the still startled redhead, before turning to the falcon hovering in front of them.

"You called Noah-sama?" the akuma asked respectfully.

"Indeed," Tyki answered all of the earlier amusement had disappeared from his voice, now replaced by a commanding tone, "Now then, report."

"Everything went well in your absence and no harm has befallen your companions, just like you ordered." The akuma started respectfully. "There were some thieves who were planning an ambush though, but we took care of them before they could do any harm." It finished with a manic smile and Lavi had no doubt's about what it meant by things being 'taken care of'.

"Good." Tyki answered, not at all bothered by the murder the akuma just admitted to. "You will all be rewarded later. Now tell me, where are they? "

"Thank you Noah-sama!" The akuma crowed happily. "Your companions are near the river, should I guide you there?"

Tyki hummed thoughtfully, "No, I don't believe that will be necessary, you may return to your post."

"Yes Noah-sama, of course Noah-sama." And with that the birdlike demon sped off again.

Lavi meanwhile had looked on interestedly. Even though he'd been living in the Noah home for a while now, he hadn't really gotten the chance to see them interact with any akuma yet. He expected the earl had forbidden them from getting near him, or else Tyki might have done so. Nonetheless it was quite fascinating to see how the normally unruly demons would so willingly obey the Noah. He'd read about the innate Noah ability to control akuma, even to the point of self-destruction but seeing it for real was something entirely different. Silently he wondered if Tyki would tell him more about his abilities later.

Those things would have to wait though because if he didn't hurry he would once again be left behind.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later Lavi lay on his back in the grass near the river. A cozy fire was burning a couple of feet away with one of Tyki's friends, Clark he'd learned, keeping a steady watch over it. To his left Eeze sat playing some kind of game with a couple of sticks. Behind him he could hear the splashing of Tyki and Momo, another friend of his, trying to catch some fish for dinner. On his right lay a couple of pointed sticks to roast the fish on when they caught some.<p>

It was really peaceful and Lavi loved it. Sure he loved action to, but he did need a bit of quiet every now and then and this was the perfect way to get his fix. It hadn't started out like that though. Hell at first he'd been scared even Road on a good day, read make-upkitless, would be better. Their arrival hadn't at all been peaceful.

* * *

><p><strong>Flashback<strong>

When they'd first come upon the camping site Lavi had been surprised. While Tyki had told him some things about his companions, name's, hobbies, stuff like that he had conveniently forgotten to mention their ages. Or one person's age in particular. So when a little blonde haired blur came running straight at them he was fully unprepared.

Luckily for the Noah, Tyki was else he'd been eating dirt for the second time that day. Now he just caught the elated boy mid leap and twirled him around, before adjusting his grip so he could keep carrying the boy comfortably.

"Hey there, Eeze." He said amusedly, fumbling around a bit so he could right the twirly glasses the leaping blonde had thrown askew. "Miss me?"

"Uhu." The blonde nodded, before turning big grey eyes on Lavi. "Who's that?" He asked shyly, yet curious.

"That's Lavi, a new friend from my special job, he'll be staying with us for a little bit." Tyki explained.

"Okay," Eeze agreed, before turning his wide innocent gaze on Tyki, "Do you think he'd want to be my friend to?" He asked hopefully.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Tyki assured the hopeful boy, "right Lavi?"

Lavi stumbled to regain his bearings, of all the things he'd been expecting a little kid with a facemask was not it. When he saw the hopeful gaze of the young boy in Tyki's arms slowly turn sad at his silence he stumbled out an answer.

"Uhm, yeah! I'm sure we'll be great friends! Right, Eeze?" Relieved Lavi watched as the boy's troubled gaze quickly cleared, being replaced with an excited look.

"Yeah!" he struggled a bit and Tyki let him down. Once his feet touched the ground he immediately ran over to Lavi, grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the two man who'd been watching them from near the fire pit. Amused Lavi let himself be dragged, it really was a cute kid.

Once within hearing distance of the two men Eeze started yelling enthusiastically, "Hey Momo! Frank! Look! This is Lavi, he's Tyki's special friend!" the boy introduced Lavi proudly.

Tyki who'd been following the two at a much more relaxed pace was just in time to hear that last comment and suppressed a snort. This would be fun.

"Well, well," The man addressed as Momo started, a suggestive grin on his face, "Tyki's special friend ,huh?"

Hearing the hidden implications of that statement Lavi turned a fiery red and tried to correct the man, but before he could protest Eeze had already answered, "Yup, he answered happily, "and he said he'd be my friend to."

"Well that's good for you, Eeze." Clark answered the happy kid. Then he turned to Lavi with a massive grin and gave him a good once over.

"I knew Tyki had a thing for the cute ones." He finally said, before turning to Momo. "Pay up."

Shocked Lavi watched as Momo dug around his pocket and fished out a crumpled note.

"Damn, Momo grumbled as he handed the note to his friend, "I coulda sworn he liked that busty chick in the last city."

As the two friends continued their bantering Lavi just stood there, mortified and blushing like crazy. How the hell had this happened?

Tyki for his part just stood off to the side, trying very hard not to laugh his ass off. This was priceless.

Eeze for his part just looked from one adult to the other, trying to figure out what was going on. Obviously there was something funny but he didn't understand. Eventually he gave up and sat down to wait out the others laughter.

Luckily for Lavi Tyki soon decided to have pity on the poor redhead, who was making a very good attempt to outcolor his hair at the moment, and finally made his presence known.

"Hello guys." He said, his humor still coloring his voice.

"Hey Tyki," They answered before Momo continued alone, "Eeze was just introducing us ta y'r _special _friend." There was an obvious emphasizes on the word special.

"Ah yes, it seems there has been a misunderstanding here." Tyki said calmly. "Lavi is a friend from my special _job._ Not my special friend."

"Awwww," Momo whined, "Why'd ya have ta go and ruin it like that?"

"Sorry," Tyki said but the amusement in his voice made it obvious he was anything but, "but you were starting to make our guest a little uncomfortable."

"Huh? Oh sorry." Clark said, taking another look at the still slightly mortified Lavi.

Tyki just suppressed another chuckle at the cute redhead, he just couldn't stay out of trouble.

"Well then, let's start over, 'kay?" Momo said.

"My name's Momo and this idiot here's Clark, nice ta meetcha."

The man looked so sincere Lavi couldn't help but smile. "Lavi and likewise."

The two men smiled back in response. They were about to ask him another question when Eeze finally decided he'd had enough waiting for one day.

"C'mon, Lavi, let's go play!"

'I really shouldn't make a habit out of this.' He thought to himself dryly, before being dragged of once again.

* * *

><p>Allen stretched as he left the cramped train compartment. Looking around he made his way through the crowd of people getting on and off the train while trying to locate any of the town's finders. Lucky for him there weren't a lot of people waiting and, as soon as he fought his way out of the crowd of passengers, he almost immediately spotted a large man in finder garb leaning against the wall of the station.<p>

He made his way over to the man, who sized him up before speaking, "You the exorcist here for the weird akuma?"

"Yes that's me."He confirmed. "Allen Walker, nice to meet you."

The man took one look at his extended hand before gripping and shaking it, "Neil Micheals." He grunted. "Shall we go somewhere a bit more private?"

"Let's." Allen agreed, before following the tall man to a rundown inn near the edge of town. Luckily for him Gizo wasn't all that big so it was a short walk.

Once inside they went up to a secluded room where another finder was waiting for them.

"That's Macey." Neil indicated before taking a seat at the table in the middle of the room.

"Allen Walker." Allen greeted her before also sitting down. "So," He started, "What's the situation?"

The girl seemed a lot more eager to talk then her partner and immediately started filling him in.

"There's three akuma hanging around town, level 2, possibly 3. One's blue and falcon shaped, then there's a purple one that looks almost like a big cat and the last is brown and has a strong resemblance to a bear. She started.

Allen nodded thoughtfully, committing the information to memory.

Seeing he understood Macey continued. "The odd thing 'bout them is that they're not hurting anyone. No suspicious attacks, disappearances, nothing. They're always around the same people as well, almost like they're guarding them or something…" She trailed off.

"These people," Allen began, "They're human?"

The two finders nodded and Allen couldn't help but believe them.

"I'll have to pay them a visit then." He said, "what do they look like?"

"Two of them are grown men, both dressed in slightly dirty shirts and jeans. One's a blonde and the other is a brunette. With them is a kid somewhere between the age of eight and eleven years old. The child is blonde also but wears a facemask that's pretty distinguishing. You should have no trouble identifying them." Neil said.

"Okay," Allen nodded, "any idea where I can find them?"

"Last I heard they were camping out by the river, that may have changed though." The girl said.

"Then I'll look there first tomorrow, thank you very much for your help." Allen said politely before getting up.

"No problem." Macey quipped, while her partner just grunted.

"Bye." Allen called and left the rundown inn to go look for a better place to stay. Once he found one, a big inn in the center of the town, he quickly rented a room and went to sleep.

Tomorrow he'd go and investigate these weird akuma, starting with the group of people they were seemingly guarding. This last resolution made Allen finally gave in to the calls of slumber.

* * *

><p><strong>AN** Yay ^^ sorta cliffie :) I've always wanted to write a cliffie XD anyways hope ya enjoyed and I'll try to get next chappie up soon so you won't have to deal with the evil cliffie for too long. xXx~15


	12. Chapter 12

**AN/** OMG, I'm so incredibly sorry! This took waaaay too long and I assure you this had not been my intention, at all. I do sorta have an excuse though, first my computer got hacked and I lost _all_ my files (including my in progress chapter for this) and then my internet just spazzed and wouldn't work for _two whole weeks_. That did not exactly put me in a writing mood as you may imagine...and then school started again and i got occupied with that. I did it though! :) and it's a long chapter to ^^ longest up till now actually, so I hope that kinda makes up for it...  
>Anyway I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed, faved, alerted etc. once I could actually check my mail again it helped my motivation a lot ;) So this one's for you! xXx-64<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Changing for the better : chapter 12<strong>

Early the next morning Allen woke up with a smile. The inn he'd slept in really was one of the best in town and, while he still preferred his own room, the bed's here were pretty comfy.

The smile quickly faded away though when he remembered why, exactly, he was in this town again and what he'd have to do today. The idea he might have to confront any of the Noah later that day was enough to erase all traces of happiness from the exorcist's being.

Deciding he might as well get things over with he got up and hastily dressed. Then he proceeded to the main room of the inn and ordered a small breakfast of nine plates of eggs and bacon, sixteen blueberry pancakes and about a dozen sandwiches, he wasn't really all that hungry today.

After finishing of his breakfast to the surprised and often slightly disgusted looks of the other patrons Allen made his way to the riverbank. The river wasn't exactly a big one and enclosed the village in a half circle. Allen had decided to begin at the west end of town and then make his way to the east alongside the river, meanwhile scoring his surroundings for the three akuma and, more importantly, the people they were supposedly guarding.

After about an hour's walk he finally came upon a small campsite. A fire pit was surrounded by five sleeping bags and he could hear laughter coming from the river. Wondering if this was the right place, the finders had said three people after all and there were five bags, Allen approached the camp cautiously. He needn't have worried though because soon after he'd reached the camp a young boy came running through the bushes blocking the river from sight.

It was a small blonde with bright blue eyes though what really caught Allen's attention was the white facemask that covered the lower half of his face. Remembering what the finders had said the exorcist was now almost completely sure this was the right place. To confirm this he slowly walked up to the young boy.

"Hey." He called out softly, not wanting to startle the little kid. A little kid that looked oddly familiar now that he thought about it.

The kid looked up and blushed, obviously shy. After a moment he answered, "Hi."

Even the boy's voice was soft Allen noticed.

"I'm Allen." He said to the little kid and smiled, hoping to put him at ease some.

"Eeze." The boy answered, a bit faster now and Allen saw this as a good sign.

"Well nice to meet you, Eeze." Allen said and smiled again.

The boy smiled back shyly.

"Are you all alone here?" Allen asked, wanting to know more about the kids companions.

Eeze slowly shook his head, "no," he said in the same soft voice he'd used earlier, "Momo and Clark are at the river," He perked up a bit at the mention of his companions, "Oh! And Tyki's here to with his special friend." At the mention of the Noah he broke out into a true smile.

Allen paled a bit, it seemed like the finders had been right, there really was a Noah here.

Trying to cover it up he gave Eeze a shaky smile, "You seem to like this Tyki person very much." He stated, trying to get some confirmation that it really was the Noah he was dealing with.

"Uhu." Eeze nodded, "Tyki has to go away for his special job a lot, so when he's here it's extra special. He even brings me gifts! See?" and the boy clutched a necklace with a silver tag dangling from it, before holding it out for the exorcist to see.

At first Allen didn't really see anything special about the pendant, but then slowly it turned and he couldn't suppress a gasp. There, etched carefully into the fragile silver, the name of Kevin Yeegar reflected back at him.

Eeze, however, misunderstood completely and thought the exorcist had gasped at how pretty his gift was. So when Allen looked back at him the boy was smiling up at him brightly, all his earlier unease forgotten.

"Mister? Are you all right?" Eeze wondered and his smile dimmed a bit when he saw how pale the exorcist had gotten.

Allen didn't answer, too caught up in the memories seeing that little piece of silver had brought back to him. Though he hadn't known the Marshall very well, but what had happened to him was monstrous, and to see this little kid playing around with the tag his murderer stole from his body…it made him feel sick.

"Why don't you sit down for a bit?" Eeze said and, before Allen could react, pulled him to the ground.

This seemed to snap the exorcist out of his daze and he suddenly looked at the boy with a determined look. He couldn't let the kid live on like this. Playing with murderers without even knowing it. He had a right to know.

"Eeze," he started of quietly, "Tyki…Tyki is not a good man."

"What?" The boy asked, startled. "But, Tyki's great!"

Allen's heart broke a bit when he saw the adoring look in the boy's eyes but he still continued on, "No he's not. What he does at his special job…they're really bad things." And he willed with every bit of his being that the boy would believe him.

"Tyki is not bad." Eeze said, such conviction behind his words that Allen was startled. "Tyki is the best thing that ever happened to me." And Allen found that he almost believed the boy, but still he opened his mouth to contradict him. Before he could continue, though, Eeze continued on,

"If Tyki wasn't there, I'd be dead." And he said it with such seriousness that Allen couldn't disbelieve him. Even if what he said went against everything he'd thought of the sadistic Noah.

"How?" He could only ask and luckily for him, the boy answered.

"It happened a year ago," Eeze began quietly before pausing and Allen let him, not wanting to push the child, "I was walking home with mom and dad from the store and we were almost there, but then bad people came." His expression grew sad. "The bad people hit momma and daddy tried to protect her, but they wouldn't listen and then they hurt daddy to." A tear trickled down his face and Allen almost wanted to stop him, but forced himself to remain quiet. He needed to know this.

"Then one of the bad men grabbed a knife," the boy paused again, the tears were coming faster now.

"And he stabbed daddy with it! There was lots of blood and I didn't know what to do and mom was screaming and then they stabbed her to and…and she fell and…they just lay there!" Eeze looked really shaken and Allen reached out to hug him, but the boy pulled away.

"And then they looked at me…I was so scared." The boy shivered, even now he could still feel the hands of the bad man grabbing his arm. "And then the one with the knife walked to me and he was smiling...and I closed my eyes, but nothing happened. I could hear the men screaming and I opened my eyes…and then I saw Tyki standing in front of me, and all the bad men were gone!" A watery smile appeared on the boys face at the mention of his idol and Allen was beginning to feel bad for trying to tell the boy his savior was evil.

"Momma was still alive," he continued, "and she asked Tyki to take care of me."

He paused again, undoubtedly thinking back to his last moments with his mother, "And I've been with Tyki ever since." He finished softly.

"So don't call Tyki a bad man!" Eeze turned to Allen a fire replacing the sorrow in his eyes. "Tyki saved me and he's the best person ever!"

And Allen could no longer find it in himself to correct the boy. He just nodded. Before he could say anything though, the two men from the river returned.

"Is everything alright there, Eeze?" One of them asked worriedly, "we heard ya yellin'.

"This man is saying bad things about Tyki." The boy answered and, after inspecting the boy's tear streaked face, the man turned to Allen.

"You should go now." The man said coldly all the warmth he'd had when talking to his young companion gone.

Not knowing what else to do and feeling decidedly awkward and unwelcome Allen nodded and stood up. Looking around unsurely he patted the dirt of his pants and chanced one last insecure look at Eeze. The little blonde was looking anywhere but him. Feeling awkward he mumbled a soft goodbye to the boy and left.

His goodbye was not returned.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile the unsuspecting Noah was enjoying a walk through the streets of the busy mining town. While it was still early the town was already bustling with miners on their way to work and little children were running around everywhere, their worried mothers following close behind. Watching the kids reminded him of Eeze and a smile formed on his lips. While he'd been a bit worried about allowing the boy to join them in the beginning all his fears had soon been assuaged. Not that he'd have left him had he really been trouble, he was a man of his word after all and he'd promised the boy's mother he'd take care of him. Just like he was taking care of the bookman now.<p>

Glancing to his side he saw Lavi walking happily alongside him, carrying a big shopping bag filled with the supplies they'd just bought. Tyki always made sure that whenever he visited his companions they were well supplied. That way they'd be able to live comfortably even when he wasn't there to help them.

When he'd gone out that morning for his customary shopping trip Lavi had offered to accompany him and Tyki had gladly agreed. Now they were on their way back but actually the Noah didn't feel like returning just yet. Spotting an ice cream stand to their right he smiled. Perfect.

"Lavi," he called to his companion, "let's take a break shall we?" He gestured to the stand. Seeing his companions eye light up as soon as he spotted the stand, his smile widened just a little. Who knew the bookman had a thing for ice cream? Filing this away for later use Tyki made his way over to the stand.

"Two cones please." He said to the elderly woman managing the stand.

"Of course dearie," The woman smiled a wrinkly smile, "What flavors would you like?"

"Hmm," the Noah looked at the different flavors for a while, "one chocolate and mocha please, and for you Lavi?"

"Strawberry and Vanilla please." The bookman said eagerly and Tyki snorted at the way the bookman looked. Lavi was almost jumping in place while staring at the sweet treats in front of him, it was surprisingly cute.

The woman had noticed it to it seemed because she smiled an indulgent and wrinkly smile at the boy before quickly scooping up the ice cream and handing the bookman his cone, before handing Tyki his. Tyki paid the woman and with a cheerful goodbye they walked off.

Spotting a nearby bench Tyki led Lavi there and they sat down, enjoying their cones in a companionable silence. Tyki chanced another glance at his companion, the bookman was devouring his ice cream at a surprising speed and he didn't seem to notice as a drip of the icy treat made its way down his chin.

Before he could stop himself Tyki had already reached out and softly wiped the offending ice away. Looking up his eyes met the stunned bookman's emerald one and he watched, fascinated, how a blush slowly crept up on the young man's face. When Lavi tried to turn his head away from the Noah's piercing stare Tyki tightened the grip on his chin just a little and the exorcist stopped protesting, instead looking at the Noah with a wide eye. Seeing the redhead wasn't going anywhere he slowly moved his hand up to cup Lavi's cheek. The redhead let out a startled gasp at the unexpected move and Tyki snapped out of whatever kind of daze he'd been in. Keeping his composure he withdrew his hand slowly, but still he did not break eye contact.

Lavi opened his mouth and was about to say something, but what Tyki'd never know, because at that moment another voice called out to them. A very familiar voice.

"LAVI!"

Feeling dread creep up on him Lavi slowly turned his head around, and what he saw there only served to increase the feeling of dread that had captured him. There, moving their way through the bustling crowd, was another exorcist. Not just any exorcist though, no this was Lavi's friend, a friend he'd told he was going away to study a war, a friend who could not, under any circumstances, see him like this.

Lavi panicked.

Before he knew what he was doing he'd jumped up, grabbed Tyki's hand and was dragging him along. Where to he did not know and honestly he did not care, as long as it was far away from the snowy haired exorcist following them.

"LAVI!" Allen increased his speed and was now nearing them at startling speeds.

"We have to get away," Lavi mumbled panicky, "He can't see me like this."

Tyki nodded his understanding, not that the scared redhead saw it and increased his speed. Now he was the one dragging the redhead along, running down hidden alleyways and other shortcuts he knew. Lavi let him, only focused on getting away.

After a while they had almost left the town and Tyki turned to Lavi, "we won't be able to outrun him forever."

At first Lavi wanted to deny this, but then his brains caught up with him and he knew Tyki was right. "Is there someplace we can do this where no one will see us?" He asked, not wanting any of the citizens to get hurt in the imminent fight or to witness the conflict that was sure to ensue.

"I know just the place." Tyki agreed and changed course slightly. They were now heading to a large clearing a little ways past the town, there wasn't really anything there except for the forest so he could be relatively sure no one would get caught up in the fight.

Allen was racing as hard as he could after the disappearing form of his friend. At first he hadn't been sure if it really was Lavi he was following, but he'd seen the way the redhead had looked up at hearing the name and there was no mistaking that eye patch. He'd immediately started making his way over to the bookman and his companion. He hadn't really been able to make out the exact features of this companion, but what he did see very clearly was the way the redhead and the other man had jumped up and fled. Not knowing why his friend was doing this and wanting to talk to him again, he'd set off after them and now it finally seemed like he'd be able to catch up because the two were slowing down.

As they came to a stop they slowly turned around and Allen was finally able to make out the face of the mystery man. He wore swirling glasses and scruffy clothing, a miner likely, but somehow he seemed strangely familiar to the cursed exorcist.

The familiar looking miner smiled a wry grin at him, closed his eyes and tilted his head back, letting his glasses glide right through his face like there was nothing there. Understanding dawned on Allen then and he watched, horrified, as slowly the man's skin darkened into an olive gray and his brown hair became darker and wavier, covering the seven stigmata that had appeared on his forehead. His clothing morphed as well into an ensemble that would sooner be seen on a noble man then on a miner and when his eyes finally snapped open again, they were a piercing gold.

"T-Tyki?" He whispered. Looking from his friend to the Noah standing beside him.

"Hello, shounen." The Noah answered him casually.

"I…I don't understand." Allen looked to Lavi imploringly, silently pleading with his eyes to explain things to him.

Lavi however couldn't do everything, to see Allen looking at him like that, with betrayal in his eyes, and to know that somewhere he really had betrayed his friend. It was tearing him apart.

Tyki seeing Lavi was unable to do what was needed sighed and decided it was up to him what the bookman could not.

"What's there to understand, shounen?" he asked, "Isn't it obvious?"

"Why is Lavi with you?" Allen growled out, getting pissed at the Noah's casual demeanor. "What did you do to him?"

"Hmm, wouldn't you like to know?" Tyki asked a mischievous sparkle in his otherwise cold eyes that only Lavi could see.

"I'll make you tell me." Allen said, a promise, and his innocence reacted to his anger, a green glow enveloping his arm.

"Oh?" Tyki asked sarcastically, one eyebrow mockingly raised, "well then shounen-"

But before he could continue Allen had already slashed at him with his crown clown. Tyki quickly moved away from the reawakened innocence and a couple of his tease came fluttering out of his body.

Allen couldn't evade the sudden onslaught of butterfly like golems fast enough and sliced his cheek on one of their razor sharp wings. Tyki let out a chuckle when he saw the bloody line appear on the exorcists cheek and was about to send more of his little weapons when Lavi suddenly spoke up.

"Stop it." The redhead's voice was barely louder than the fluttering of the Tease's wings, yet every occupant of the field still heard it. Tyki stopped his attack and turned to Lavi, from the corner of his eye he could see Allen lowering his weapon and doing so as well.

"This is unnecessary." The redhead continued on in an emotionless voice. "Tyki, we should leave."

"Wait!" Allen called out incredulously, "Lavi wait."

"Why should I?" The redhead wondered, "Tyki was right, there's nothing to understand."

"Try." Allen insisted, creeped out at seeing the normally exuberant redhead so emotionless.

"It's obvious isn't it? I'm with the Noah now." Lavi shrugged uncaringly.

"I'm surprised you're so shocked actually, after all, I was never really a part of the order in the first place. I'm a bookman remember?" Here he smiled at Allen mockingly. "We collect information, and I got all the information I needed from you and so I left." He shrugged again, "the Noah were so kind as to take care of me." An appreciating look directed at Tyki, "and that's all there is to it."

He turned his cool emerald orb on the trembling exorcist. "You've all simply outlived your usefulness."

Allen cringed at the sharp tone and even sharper words of his former friends, this was not the Lavi he knew. The Lavi he knew would never speak so coldly, let alone to his friends. The Lavi he knew would never side with the Noah, the Lavi he knew…did he still exist?

Searchingly he looked in the redheads eye but he could see no warmth there only shards of emerald glass, cutting into him with ever piercing look. Dejectedly he dropped his head, perhaps, he really had been fooled all along.

Lavi suppressed the wave of sorrow that wanted to take over him when he saw his friend give up on him. It was for the best though. This way, they would all forget about him and they could live on happily without him. That that meant he'd have to live with this empty feeling forever… he could do that, just as long as they were happy. Who knows? Maybe this void would swallow him and he could live on feeling nothing, forever numb to the ache in his wounded heart.

Besides him he could see Tyki looking at him worriedly, not that Allen would notice, he didn't know the Noah nearly well enough for that, but Lavi did and he saw how much it bothered the Noah that he could do nothing about this. Something which might have surprised him at the beginning of his stay at the Noah home, but not any longer, no he knew better now.

He sent a grateful look back at the Noah, surprising him. He knew what Tyki had been trying to do at the beginning. He'd wanted to scare Allen off and distract him, so Lavi himself wouldn't need to confront his former comrade. Lavi knew better though, if he hadn't stepped in, said those hurtful words, Allen would have followed him to the ends of the world, because that is what the loyal exorcist would do for his friends. Friends Lavi now truly was no longer a part of.

Lavi could feel he was about to breakdown, but held it back just a little longer. He knew Tyki had sent one of his tease for a portal to Road, just a little longer and then he'd be safe.

Closing his eyes he let out a soft relieved sigh as he finally saw the portal appearing before them. Looking at the silent Noah by his side he gestured to the portal and Tyki nodded, knowing not to say anything right now. The Noah would come back for Eeze and the others later.

Walking to the portal Tyki quickly opened the door and walked inside.

Hearing the door open Allen's head snapped up and he saw as Lavi slowly stepped into the portal, just before he passed through completely their eyes met and Allen let out a gasp at what he saw there.

The portal closed.

Allen stood up from the spot on the ground that he'd collapsed on. With a determined look in his eyes he brushed the dirt of his clothes and turned back to the town. With a slight frown on his face he thought back to that last moment he'd seen Lavi, or more precisely, seen the real Lavi. Because he knew now, the Lavi he knew, still existed. That single look in an emerald pool of sorrow had said it all and Allen understood.

He'd keep on walking.

And he'd get his friend back.

* * *

><p>Somewhere far away from the confrontation the Millennium Earl was seated comfortably in a plush chair near the hearth. On a little table besides him a black phone rested. The light of the flickering flames reflected ominously of the dark surface of the phone and created whispery shadows around the room.<p>

The phone started to ring and the Earl picked it up, "moshi, moshi." He said, sounding not at all surprised. As the person on the other hand started talking his usual grin turned even more menacing.

"Hai, hai, that's perfect." His grin now almost split his face in two and a couple of evil cackles escaped his lips.

"I'll see you soon then." He said and put down the phone on the receiver with an ominous click.

Only then did he look around and beckon the person who had been patiently waiting in the shadows.

Road stepped forward with a mischievous light dancing in her golden eyes.

"My dear Road-chan, it seems like it is finally time to continue with our plans." The Earl told her happily.

"Yes Millenie! The girl answered exuberantly, looking positively thrilled at the idea of doing whatever it was the earl had just ordered her to do.

"Good then, you know what to do." The Earl answered in a sadistically pleased tone.

"Yes lord Millenium." The girl answered, that same sadistic amusement reflecting back to the Millennium lord in her golden orbs. "I'll get right to it."

And she left.

The millennium earl remained seated for a while longer, staring into the flickering flames of the hearth.

"Now things really will get interesting, Lavi-chwan." He said to himself softly and started chuckling.

Yes, things would get _very_ interesting now.

* * *

><p><strong>AN **Now who can guess who the earl was talking to? :P


	13. Chapter 13

AN/ Two words : Writers block.

Hope you all understand and here's a short recap since it's been a while,  
><em>Last chapter : Lavi and Tyki were finally confronted by Allen, resulting in Lavi saying a lot of hurtful things to him. Meanwhile the earl had a conversation with a mysterious person and told Road they could finally move their plans ahead once more. (I did say it would be a short recap).<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Changing for the better : Chapter 13<strong>

It had been a week since the incident with Tyki and Lavi. Allen had returned to the order and after a lot of thinking on the subject reported the problem dealt with. He'd felt a bit guilty lying to his superiors and friends but he figured he wasn't _really_ lying. There wasn't really a problem after all, all those akuma did was protect Tyki's 'friends', they didn't seem to be harming any of the citizens. As for Tyki, the Noah was involved that was true, but he wasn't really doing anything that would be detrimental to the order, or anyone and Allen felt confident he wasn't planning anything evil for those humans or the citizens in general.

Lavi…He didn't know what to think about that. The bookman had been cold and said a lot of hurtful things…but in those last seconds, just before he left. His eyes had looked so broken then and Allen had seen the hurt in them. Lavi…he didn't mean those things. When he realized this Allen had wanted to help him, to save him. He _still_ wanted to save him, the problem however was, what did he need saving from?

The redheaded bookman hadn't looked like he was hurt by the Noah with him. Actually, before he had called out to Lavi the two had looked like the best of friends, even during the confrontation Allen had noticed how Lavi stuck close to the taller male and found support in him. Tyki for his part had seemed pretty protective of the hammer wielding exorcist himself. There had been a certain ferocity in those golden orbs that Allen had never witnessed before, not even when the Noah had been about to kill him.

No, if Tyki was any indication than the Noah hadn't been the ones to hurt his friend. So who had?

Heaving a deep sigh Allen leaned his head against the cool glass of the window he was sitting in front of. He closed his eyes and allowed the chill to sooth the headache he could feel coming on. After sitting like that for what seemed like hours he finally opened his eyes again and took in the scenery outside. From where he was seated he had a perfect view of the train rails that ran by the exorcists headquarters . With an indifferent gaze he watched as another train passed by, a lone exorcist on the roof. Focusing a bit more he saw it was Bookman sr. Lavi's mentor, a rare sight indeed.

Ever since Lavi left the old man had kept to himself. When he did leave the confines of his room he was usually found in the library, reading over mission reports and jotting down notes as fast as he could, before leaving again. Another change was the now permanently grim look on his face. The bookman had never been the most cheerful grandpa on the block but his moods had reached a new low after his apprentices departure.

Bookman…Allen jumped up suddenly, a new light filling his eyes as he stormed from the room.

He finally had a purpose once again.

* * *

><p>Lavi lay on the bed in his room, staring at the ceiling with a lone unseeing eye. He still wore the clothes he'd worn a week ago that fateful day in the village, not having had the spirit to remove them.<p>

As soon as Tyki and he had returned to the Noah manor Lavi had raced to his room, ignoring the worried calls of the older man and the surprised yelp of Road, who'd been waiting for them. He'd ignored everything in his quest to be alone as soon as possible. Once Tyki finally realized what was happening he'd come racing after him, but he was too late. Right as he reached Lavi's room Lavi had slammed the door in his face. Why the man had not simply 'chosen' to ignore the doors existence and phased through Lavi did not know, though he did appreciate the solitude. He needed it.

That night he'd cried himself too sleep, continuously seeing the betrayed look on Allen's face flash through his mind again and again and again. Remembering the cruel thing's he had said to the other exorcist and hating himself more and more every time he did so. Even his dreams did not give him any respite. All night long he dreamt of his friends accusing faces, of their bleeding bodies calling him a traitor, blaming him for their deaths. Eventually he couldn't handle it anymore and decided to just stay awake, ignoring the worried calls of Tyki and sometimes Road that came through the door. But eventually even those stopped coming and he was finally, truly alone.

Now, he just felt empty. No feelings remained, only a dark and all consuming void where his heart once beat. Lavi didn't live, he didn't survive even, Lavi…Lavi just _was_ and he couldn't bring himself to care any longer.

These last months with the exorcists he thought he'd finally learnt how to feel again, only to have it all ripped away when he joined the Noah, but even with these heartless killers he had managed to find some kind of joy once more. Now, these feelings had been ripped from him once more and Lavi couldn't take it anymore, didn't want to take it anymore.

He smiled at the irony of the situation, a grim quirk of his lips. By making him feel more than he ever had, he'd finally become the perfect bookman, emotionless and unattached. Who would have thought?

He was snapped from any further musings by a shadow falling over his prone figure. Lavi glanced up emotionlessly, already knowing who it would be.

"Leave me alone." Was all he said before moving his gaze back to the ceiling, ignoring the worried Noah standing by his bedside.

"I will not." Tyki answered simply, before sitting down on the bed near his side.

Lavi sighed before deciding he didn't really care either way and proceeded to ignore the older man.

"Lavi."

Lavi studiously ignored the call of his name.

"Lavi." The call came once again and there was an undercurrent of concern in it now.

"Lavi, look at me!" A hand gripped his chin harshly and turned the stubborn bookman's head so he was looking into the concerned golden eyes of Tyki Mikk.

Lavi absently noted that the man had seen better times. There were dark circles surrounding those golden orbs and worry lines had started to appear on his face, his usually glossy dark hair now looked unkempt and matted. It looked like he had aged years in the single week Lavi had locked himself up. Vaguely he felt a pang of concern himself before it vanished again, swallowed up by the void that now swirled in his chest.

Tyki winced as he saw the dead look in the usually so bright emerald. It was even worse than he'd thought. That first night he had immediately wanted to phase through the door, privacy be damned, but Road had stopped him, telling him Lavi might need some time alone first. Grudgingly he had complied and waited for the moment Lavi would finally want to see him, only phasing food through the door so the bookman wouldn't starve. That moment hadn't come though, Now, after a week of restless pacing and constant worry Tyki had finally reached his limit, enough was enough. Lavi would leave that room, if he wanted to or not.

Glancing back at the empty and glazed look in those gem colored eyes Tyki felt a new bout of worry coming on. He didn't know what he'd do if the spark he loved so never returned to those empty eyes again.

Loved.

Such a strong word to describe his feelings with. Strong but not too much so as he'd come to realize over this past week. At first he'd just found him interesting, a shiny new toy to play with and alleviate his boredom with, but slowly that fascination had turned into something more, growing and ensnaring Tyki in a net that he only noticed when it was already too late.

Tyki loved the bookman, loved his spirit and his innocence, loved the smile that would brighten his face when he found something interesting, the way a rosy blush would appear whenever he felt embarrassed and the ease with which he could trigger these.

Tyki loved Lavi, but looking down at the empty shell laid on the bed he couldn't help but fear he was too late now.

Suddenly he couldn't stand to look at him anymore, this shadow of the bright boy Lavi used to be, and turned away, disgusted, releasing Lavi as he did so.

Lavi just remained silent, turning so his back was to the distraught Noah and staring mindlessly out the window. Still replaying his nightmares in his mind.

After what seemed like hours but could have been minutes the two were startled by a knock on the door. Tyki looked at the door for a moment, wondering who it could be, before standing up and opening it.

He was greeted by a purple humanoid akuma, which immediately bowed respectfully to him.

"What is it?" He asked tiredly, not feeling up to dealing with anybody right now. Actually he had half a mind to order the blasted thing to self-destruct right now. He wouldn't though, the earl wouldn't be very pleased if Tyki started randomly blasting his servants.

"Noah-sama," the akuma started respectfully, "the Earl requires your presence."

"Can't it wait?" Tyki asked, already knowing the answer but still feeling like he should try.

"No, Millenium-sama said he wants to see you as soon as possible."

"Very well then," The Noah sighed and looked back at the shade on the bed, "We'll continued this later." He said and walked away.

Halfway to the Earls quarters he met Road. "Road." He greeted.

"Tyki." She answered in kind and was about to continue on her way when Tyki grabbed her arm and turned her around.

Road looked at her uncle with a questioning look. "Yes?" She asked.

"I know of your new…toy," he said, "Keep it away from Lavi or you might find it…broken." The threat hung heavy between them in the air and Road's eyes hardened for a split second before she adapted one of her usual sweet smiles. "Of course." She answered in a tone just as sugary sweet, before pulling free and skipping away.

Tyki sighed before continuing on once more, he could only hope Road would keep her word.

* * *

><p>An Okay so it's kinda short but it's better than nothing...right? at least Tyki finally realizes his feelings! too bad for him Lavi's just about almost lost his...he really has shitty luck doesn't he? Anyway I've finally figured out where I want to go with this (aka I've finally figured out the ending, which is something I'd been struggling with for a while) So if everything goes according to plan updates should come a lot sooner now :) (though I do have exams in a couple weeks, so no promises). Anyway a big thank you to everyone who's stuck with this story up till now and R&R please! xXx~4ever


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